Amanda West Lewis

About the Artist

Amanda West Lewis combines careers as a writer, theatre artist, and calligrapher. She is the author of nine books for youth and young readers, including Focus Click Wind, a novel about youth activism in 1968, and These Are Not the Words, a semi-autobiographical novel about the jazz era and growing up in New York City. Her books have been nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Red Cedar Award and the Violet Downey IODE Award.  She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. 

In her theatre career, Amanda has acted, directed, produced, and written for theatre, as well as founded The Ottawa Children’s Theatre, a school dedicated to theatre education for young people. Her calligraphic artwork has been exhibited in numerous shows and she has written books on calligraphy and the development of writing.  

Born in New York City, Amanda moved with her mother to Toronto, Canada as a teenager. She now lives with her husband, writer Tim Wynne-Jones, in the woods near Perth, Ontario, where they raised their three children.