Avi

Edward Irving Wortis (1937- ), better known by the pen name Avi, is an American author of young adult and children's literature. He is a winner of both the Newbery Honor and Newbery Medal.

Avi and his twin sister Emily Wortis Leider (also a writer) were born in New York City. In the year after his birth, his family moved to Brooklyn. When he was young his sister gave him the nickname "Avi." Two of Avi's grandfathers were writers, and one grandmother was a playwright. In interviews, he recalled his mother reading to him and his sister every night, and going to the public library on Fridays. He is also the first cousin of the Academy Award-winning actor Alan Arkin.

Avi's parents transferred him from Stuyvesant High School to Elisabeth Irwin High School, a smaller private school. There he studied with a tutor, Ella Ratner, whom he credits for his writing success. After living in Providence, Rhode Island in the 1980s and 1990s, Avi now lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Linda Cruise Wright. He has adult children.