About Gigi

Gigi Amateau’s first book for young adults, Claiming Georgia Tate, was published by Candlewick Press in 2005. That title was selected as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age and hailed by author Judy Blume: "It's rare and exciting to discover a talented new writer like Gigi Amateau." The Wall Street Journal called the book "an ambitious push into the young adult market." She is the author of six other books, including A Certain Strain of Peculiar, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year and Chancey of the Maury River, A William Allen White Masters list title. Come August, Come Freedom, her first work of historical fiction, won the Library of Virginia's People Choice Award for fiction, was chosen by Bank Street College as a Best Children’s Book of the Year, and by the Virginia Library Association as a Jefferson Cup Honor book. 

Gigi earned a Bachelor of Science in urban studies and planning from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a Master of Science in gerontology, and PhD in Health Science, also from VCU. She has worked in the health and human services sector for more than thirty years. Gigi currently serves as Assistant Professor for the VCU Department of Gerontology. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.