Annie Cardi

Annie Cardi explores disrupted family routines in teen fiction. Candlewick Press introduced her debut, The Chance You Won’t Return, in 2014. It follows high-school student Alex Winchester as she manages driver’s education, a first romance, younger siblings, and growing concern about her mother. Alex’s mother begins dressing like Amelia Earhart, studying maps, and planning a final flight, leaving Alex to decide when secrecy becomes unsafe. Cardi uses Alex’s humorous, observant first-person voice to explore mental illness without reducing the mother to a diagnosis or removing her place within the family. The manuscript received a PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award before publication. Cardi earned an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and her shorter work appeared in literary magazines. Publisher and review materials describe The Chance You Won’t Return as a realistic family story for readers twelve and older. Its aviation imagery gives form to uncertainty, departure, and Alex’s evolving sense of responsibility.