Catherine Hernandez is a highly acclaimed author and screenwriter. She was born of Chinese, Filipino, Spanish, and Indian heritage and is married into the Navajo Nation. Hernandez is not only a writer but also a radical mom, a proud queer woman, a theater practitioner, and the artistic director of b current Performing Arts and the Sulong Theater.
Hernandez made her debut as an author with the release of her first novel, Scarborough. The book won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript and made many Best of 2017 lists. The book has been optioned for film, and Hernandez is currently writing the screenplay. Additionally, Hernandez has written critically acclaimed plays, including Singkil, The Femme Playlist, and Eating with Lola, as well as children's books, such as M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book and I Promise. She also created Audible Original's audio sketch comedy series Imminent Disaster.
Hernandez's work has been widely recognized and honored. Her novel Scarborough was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards, the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, the Edmund White Award, and the Trillium Book Award, and was longlisted for Canada Reads. Her second novel, Crosshairs, published in 2020, made several Best Books lists, including CBC's Best Canadian Fiction, NOW Magazine's 10 Best Books, Indigo Best Book, Audible Best Audiobooks, and NBC 20 Best LGBTQ Books. Hernandez's third children's book, Where Do Your Feelings Live?, will be published in winter 2022. She is currently working on the film adaptation of Scarborough, which is in post-production by Compy Films with support from Telefilm Canada and Reel Asian Film Festival.