Dahlonega
Literary Festival
An Annual Celebration of Readers, Writers, and Books
Chris Negron
Chris Negron resides in Forsyth County, GA and is the author of several novels for children. His 2020 debut, Dan Unmasked, was a finalist for Georgia Author of the Year in the Young Adult category in 2021, was nominated for the Sakura Medal in Japan in 2023, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and was selected for the Indies Introduce list by the American Booksellers Association (ABA).
He often describes his second novel, The Last Super Chef, as "Willy Wonka meets Gordon Ramsey." It was named to the Indies Next list in 2021, again by the ABA. Chris's latest novel, Underdog City, released this past fall and was published, as all three of his novels are, by HarperCollins. It features plenty of dogs, an ornery rooster, and a main character fighting through feelings of anxiety in an attempt to bring his community together. Publishers Weekly calls it a "discerning celebration of connection and healing."
Chris holds a Computer Science degree from Yale University. His desire to write started young, an outcropping of his years of playing Dungeons & Dragons in friends' basements. But he didn't truly start his pursuit of this lifelong dream until much later. He's usually inspired to write stories for kids about the things he loves most, including comic books, baseball, competitive cooking shows, and dogs. Visit him at chrisnegron.com.
Underdog City
Mortimer Bray is not okay.
It seems like everything in his life is changing for the worse. After his own much-loved dog dies, he can’t bring himself to carry on with his dog-walking business; there’s a strange new girl who’s moved into the house next door; and suddenly there’s a buzzing feeling of anxiety in his head and heart when he’s faced with something new.
His neighborhood, Townsend Heights, used to feel like the most comfortable place in the world. But lately, it seems like everyone is arguing, and there’s uncertainty around every corner.
The neighborhood's only vacant lot is somehow behind it all, Mortimer is sure of that much. If he can unearth the lot's secret history, he just might stop the Heights from unraveling completely.
Mortimer can’t save Townsend Heights on his own. But when it comes to community, you’re never truly on your own—not as long as you’re willing to learn from the past, in order to do better in the future.
