Riley Redgate is the pen name of Ríoghnach Robinson (), an American author of

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

Life and career

Robinson was raised in

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

, North Carolina. She attended

Richard J. Reynolds High School Richard J. Reynolds High School now the Richard J. Reynolds Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts (often simply R. J. Reynolds High School or Reynolds) is a high school in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools located in Winsto ...

, where she began her first novel, ''Seven Ways We Lie''. She is an

alumna Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...

Gambier, Ohio Gambier is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,391 at the 2010 census. Gambier is the home of Kenyon College. A major feature is a gravel path running the length of the village, referred to as "Middle Path". This ...

, where she majored in economics, graduating in 2016. Her debut novel was published before she graduated. While at Kenyon, Robinson won the college's James E. Michael Playwriting Award for her play ''Mourning Sickness''. Robinson worked from Chicago as writing

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

for the

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

media outlet ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August ...

''. Her three novels are ''Seven Ways We Lie'' (2016), ''Note Worthy'' (2017), and ''Final Draft'' (2018), all published by Amulet, an imprint of

Abrams Books Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe. Run by President and CEO Mich ...

. Robinson is

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

, of half-Irish and half-Chinese descent, and the characters in her novels similarly lie "in the middle of a spectrum rather than out at the ends".

Pen name

Robinson choose the pseudonym Riley Redgate when she was 16 years old,

brainstorming Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. In other words, brainstorming is a situation where a group ...

it with the help of other members of a writers' forum. Her composition criteria consisted of three things: she wanted to keep her real initials; something

gender neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions ( social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguis ...

; and something easily pronounceable.

Works

*''Seven Ways We Lie'' (2016) *''Note Worthy'' (2017) *''Final Draft'' (2018) *''Alone Out Here'' (2022)

Discography

* ''Somebody Say Something'' (2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Redgate, Riley 21st-century American novelists American feminist writers American women novelists American young adult novelists Kenyon College alumni Writers from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Writers from Ohio Novelists from Chicago Writers from Brooklyn Living people Bisexual women writers American people of Irish descent American women writers of Chinese descent American novelists of Chinese descent American LGBT people of Asian descent Year of birth missing (living people) LGBT people from Ohio LGBT people from North Carolina LGBT people from Illinois LGBT people from New York (state) 21st-century American women writers American bisexual writers