Matthew de la Peña is an American writer of children's books who specializes in novels for young adults. He won the Newbery Medal in 2016 for his book Last Stop on Market Street.^[1][2]

A San Diego, California, native,^[3] Matt de la Peña received his BA from University of the Pacific, which he attended on a basketball scholarship. He then received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University.

De la Peña wrote Mexican WhiteBoy in 2008, drawing on his own teenage passion for sports and Mexican heritage.^[4] The novel was banned from classrooms in Tucson, Arizona, starting in 2012, when lawmakers passed laws to remove materials containing "critical race theory,"^[5] until 2017, when the court ruled the law violated the constitutional rights of Mexican American students.^[6]

In 2016, de la Peña was honored with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) National Intellectual Freedom Award.^[7] In 2015, he wrote Last Stop on Market Street which won the 2016 Newbery Medal. In 2021, he published Milo Imagines the World, which was named to the 2022 Bank Street Children's Best Books of the Year List with an "Outstanding Merit" distinction and shared the committee's Josette Frank Award with Angeline Boulley's Firekeeper's Daughter.^[8]

As of 2022^[update], he resides in Southern California.^[9] He teaches creative writing at San Diego State University.^[10]

• Interview in You Can't Say That! Writers for Young People Talk About Censorship, Free Expression, and the Stories They Have to Tell. Candlewick, 2021, a young adult non-fiction book about book censorship, edited by young adult author and literary critic Leonard S. Marcus. ISBN 9780763690366