Ari Tison

Ari Tison is an award-winning author and poet for children and adults. She is the author of the YA hybrid novel Saints of the Household (FSG) which was the winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award, the winner of the Pura Belpré Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award, and another Untitled YA (FSG) forthcoming in 2025. 

Saints of the Household was a Junior Library Guild Gold selection and chosen as a Best Book of the Month by Amazon, Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, New York Public Library, BCCB, and Chicago Public Library along with receiving starred trade reviews from Kirkus, BCCB, and SLJ.

Ari has been broadly anthologized and has had poetry published in various national magazines. She is a member of Las Musas and a founding member of Diverse Verse. Ari frequently teaches creative writing across genres through various organizations and previously taught in Hamline’s MFA and BFA programs.

She grew up in the Twin Cities where she received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline. She now lives in rural Wisconsin on a hobby farm with her husband and child. Ari belongs to the Bribri people, an Indigenous people group of contemporary Costa Rica.

Q&A with Ari Tison

How did you come to teach at Hamline MFAC? I was so very thrilled to be invited by Mary and the faculty. I always dreamed of teaching someday with MFAC, I feel like so many alumni do, but I wouldn't have ever expected to actually end up being on faculty. I'm grateful to bring on poetry, decolonized craft, and craft in general (I'm obsessed), and to be the first Native person hired as faculty. Joining faculty feels like I get to honor that I am from a long line of storytellers, but also get to enjoy learning from so many storytellers--students, alumni, and faculty--who have their own beautiful histories and knowledge.
What’s your favorite part of residency? I love listening and note taking during lectures!
How would you describe your faculty advising style? Art is not an aim of perfection but of communication and transformation for both the creator and the audience. I try to take an approach of both celebrating what is shining and identifying opportunities for growth and deepening. I also try to give and name craft tools where necessary so that we aren't just working on this book. Rather, we are building your toolbox so that you'll be able to bring your learning to a career of books and other forms of storytelling. I also will occasionally ask for exercises, but my rule is that I won't ask you to do anything that I'm not willing to do :)
What’s your favorite book to recommend to MFAC students? I love recommending Elastoe by Darcie Little Badger. That book. OPH!
	We asked you to send a photo that represents a favorite Hamline memory. What's happening in your photo? Here’s a photo of Brandy, Lilliam, Erin, Laurel, Eliot and I on graduation day after we got the robes on in the back with the graduates!

Young adult