Arriel

Vinson

Award Winning Author

Young Adult Novelist

Travels from: Indianapolis, IN

“Vinson shows a clear sense of how complex relationships of all kinds can be for teens, and readers will also appreciate how both love and community are celebrated without ignoring the factors that put them at risk.” — BCCB

Arriel Vinson is a Midwesterner who writes about being young, Black, and in search of freedom. Her debut YA novel-in-verse, Under the Neon Lights, is a 2026 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, a 2026 Indiana Authors Award in YA winner, and a 2026 Black Caucus of ALA/School Library Journal Fiction Honor. Arriel earned her MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and is a Tin House YA Scholar, Highlights Foundation scholarship recipient, and Walter Grant recipient. Her work has been published in Kweli Journal, The Rumpus, Essence, Waxwing Mag, and more. Her sophomore YA novel, If This World Were Mine, is forthcoming in January 2027.

Before becoming an author, Arriel was a publishing professional, creating marketing campaigns and spearheading digital communications at Poets & Writers, Catapult, and Macmillan. She focused her efforts on diverse authors and titles, forging partnerships that targeted readers who valued BIPOC stories. As an editor at the now-defunct Catapult magazine, Arriel honed emerging and established writers’ voices, editing personal essays and short stories.

She is also an educator with over eight years of experience teaching teen and adult writing workshops. What began as a love for mentorship with Girls Write Now, a New York-based nonprofit that nurtures a love of writing, blossomed into her teaching at the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute, The Loft Literary Center, the Solstice MFA, Butler University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, and bookstores and organizations across the country. She is currently the Managing Director of Project Loudmouth, a 501(c)(3) in Indianapolis that brings diverse authors/illustrators to Title I schools.

Arriel's Featured Titles

If This World Were Mine

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers |

January 26, 2027

Teen & Young Adult

A dazzling and heartfelt YA novel in verse by Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, Arriel Vinson, about a Black girl majorette healing from loss, while discovering how to dance to her own beat.

It’s hard to plan for the future when the one you envisioned is now a thing of the past.

Seventeen-year-old Sky Simms should be riding high. It’s senior year, and she’s the dance team captain with a shot at a competition that could change her life. But Sky is still reeling from her older brother’s sudden, tragic death and the collapse of their shared HBCU dreams—she as majorette, he as drum major.

With the memory of her brother ever-present, Sky struggles to manage all the moving parts of her life—school, college prep, dance–let alone find excitement for them. Once practice is in full swing, Sky’s distracted from her woes when forced to work with Meech, the cute but annoying drumline captain. And she slowly discovers they can help each other with more than the competition.

But she can only run from her grief for so long. Sky might not know what life looks like without her brother, but if she doesn’t learn to deal with the present, she could fumble her future before she can imagine a new one.

BIPOC Representation, Black Voices, Fiction, Friendship & Community, Kid-Lit: Young Adult, Performing Arts, Poetry, Romance & Romantasy

Under the Neon Lights

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers |

June 3, 2025

Teen & Young Adult

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award

In this sparkling and heartfelt debut YA novel in verse by a Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow, a young Black girl discovers first love, self-worth, and the power of a good skate. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Joya Goffney.

Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Coleman lives for Saturdays at WestSide Roll, the iconic neighborhood roller rink. On these magical nights, Jae can lose herself in the music of DJ Sunny, the smell of nachos from the concession, and the crowd of some of her favorite people—old heads, dance crews, and other regulars like herself. Here, Jae and other Black teens can fully be themselves.

One Saturday, as Jae skates away her worries, she crashes into the cutest boy she’s ever seen. Trey’s dimples, rich brown skin, and warm smile make it impossible for her to be mad at him though. Best of all, he can’t stop finding excuses to be around her. A nice change for once, in contrast with her best friend’s cold distance of late or her estranged father creeping back into her life.

Just as Jae thinks her summer might change for the better, devastating news hits: Westside Roll is shutting down. The gentrification rapidly taking over her predominantly Black Indianapolis neighborhood, filling it with luxury apartments and fancy boutiques, has come for her safe-haven. And this is just one trouble Jae can’t skate away from.

Debut author Arriel Vinson’s lyrical and contemplative story of young Black love and coming of age in Indianapolis ushers in an exciting new voice in YA literature.

BIPOC Representation, Black Voices, Celebrity Book Club Pick, Fiction, Friendship & Community, Kid-Lit: Young Adult, Performing Arts, Poetry, Romance & Romantasy

Author Journey Presentation

This all-encompassing presentation includes a brief journey through Arriel’s writing life—from her experience at her high school newspaper and within higher education—to the inspiration for Under the Neon Lights or If This World Were Mine with a brief performance of an excerpt and a mini-video of the culture she focuses on in the novel. Once concluded, Arriel allows 15 minutes for a Q&A.

Writing the Places that Save Us Workshop

Sometimes, the places we love are the spaces that allow us to create community. Sometimes, the places we love are the spaces keeping us alive. This generative workshop will allow writers to explore the definitions of home and community, and then use prompts to write their own piece that praises the places they love.

Getting to the Heart of the Story Workshop

What does it mean to write honestly, and what does truth look like in creative writing? Through generative prompts and examining the honesty of short stories, essays, and poems, we’ll discover how to let the writing guide us to the truth. In this workshop, we’ll read contemporary and classic authors to learn how to make our fiction and nonfiction real–and most of all, get to the heart of what we love.

Erasure Poetry as Resistance Workshop

This workshop will teach writers how to create erasure poetry and how to confront historical/political texts using different erasure methods. We will ask: what is being said? How is it being said? How did the poet create something new? We will discuss the different methods of erasure — such as whiting out, blacking out, highlighting — and then create our own erasures, with participants choosing from a variety of provided texts.

Poetry As Storytelling

In this course, we’ll take a step-by-step approach to writing narrative poetry–whether to create single poems or a novel-in-verse. Poetry and storytelling often go hand in hand–the elements combined help your reader understand your motive, your poetic obsessions, and what experiences shape your existence. We’ll explore the benefits of narrative poetry, how to write intriguing narrative poems, and how our memories and observations will inform these works.

The Power of Line Breaks Poetry Craft Lesson

Writing and revising the novel-in-verse is challenging. This craft lesson will discuss where our lines hold power, how the lines and breaks are propelling the narrative forward, and more.

Author 101: The Journey to a Book Deal

This session explores my journey to a traditional two-book deal, what to prepare for when entering traditional publishing, and how to do it yourself. If you’re ready to go from vision board to action, this is the seminar for you!

“We would love to have you again! It was so fun, and several of my colleagues said you should be a teacher! You have natural talent 🙂! Everyone is still basking in the afterglow of our Library Week.” — Pike High School, 2026

“Everyone enjoyed it. I had a little girl (a complete hot mess) hand me a note this morning telling me how awesome it was! 😭 I am keeping that note forever!” — Fishers Junior High School, 2026

“Arriel always does such an incredible job making everyone feel safe and comfortable creating and sharing their work in this space.” — Girls Write Now, Virtual Writing Workshop 2026

“Your pacing, prompts, and engagement with the students were all so smooth and warm, and I loved your flow.” — Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute Writers Week (for Teens), 2026

“Arriel is an incredibly thoughtful instructor. Taking her class is like taking a class on analysis of the writing while also applying it to your own writing – most classes take one or the other approach, in Arriel’s class you get the gift of both.” — Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute YA Workshop, 2024

“Vinson delivers a compassionate telling of adolescent mourning and resilience in this stunning verse novel. Sensorial descriptions of HBCU band culture as well as the movement, music, and costumes associated with majorette dance sequences are among the book’s standout pleasures, and intentional text placement paints vivid images as lines dance across the page. [A] lively and emotionally affecting portrait.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review (If This World Were Mine)

“In IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE, Vinson carefully crafts a narrative honoring the very important cultural tradition of the Black dance team…and the dreams that exist in every stomp and sway. At the same time, she cares enough about our young people to show that in the midst of all that swagger, the weight of bearing the torch isn’t theirs to carry. At least not all the time. That’s the gift of being part of a team, to be reminded that grief can sometimes get in the way of the groove, but it doesn’t have to get in the way of greatness. This is greatness and Vinson proves she’s here to stay.” — Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author

Arriel’s Press Kit

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award (2026)
Indiana Authors Award in YA (2026)
Black Caucus of ALA/School Library Journal Fiction Honor (2026)
Reese’s Book Club LitUp Selection (2025)
Junior Library Guild Gold Selection (2025)