CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2016 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The award winner will be announced on May 31^st.

This year’s contending novels include a powerful novel about living with someone who has suffered through war; a graphic novel involving a young shape-shifter with a knack for villainy; and a smartly told story dealing with grief and other complex emotions.

Jennifer Niven author of All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven grew up in Indiana and now lives with her fiancé and literary cats in Los Angeles.

As well as writing novels, Niven has also worked as a screenwriter, journalist and an associate producer at ABC Television.

Niven’s first young adult novel, All the Bright Places was released in 2015. The narrative follows two teenagers, Violet and Finch who are struggling with mental health issues.

Meg Wolitzer author of Belzhar

Meg Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn and raised in Syosset, New York. Wolitzer studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981.

She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, Skidmore College. Belzhar is her twelfth novel.

Kwame Alexander author of The Crossover

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and the New York Times Bestselling author who believes that poetry can change the world. His name Kwame comes from Ghana and it means born on a Saturday, but Alexander was born on a Wednesday. His second novel, The Crossover, is a New York Times bestseller and Newbery Medal Winner.

Nicola Yoon author of Everything Everything

Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica and in Brooklyn, New York. She majored in electrical engineering as an undergraduate at Cornell University but taking a creative writing class as an elective got her “hooked on writing”. After graduation, she attended the Master of Creative Writing program at Emerson College.

Yoon currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and their daughter. Everything Everything is her debut novel.

Kate Milford author of Greenglass House

Kate Milford is the New York Times bestselling author of the Edgar Award-winning, National Book Award nominee Greenglass House.

Kate has written for stage and screen, and as a contributing writer at nagspeake.com she has authored scholarly articles on subjects as varied as self-aware ironmongery and how to make saltwater taffy in a haunted kitchen. Kate grew up in Riva, Maryland, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, two children, and their dog.

Sharon Biggs Waller author of A Mad, Wicked Folly

Sharon Biggs Waller moved to England in 2000, where she worked as a riding instructor at the Royal Mews in Buckingham Palace and as a freelance magazine writer. These days she is a dressage rider and trainer and lives on a ten-acre sustainable farm in Northwest Indiana with her British husband, Mark.

Laurie Halse Anderson author of The Impossible Knife of Memory

Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer, known for children’s and young adult novels.

She lives in Pennsylvania, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. She and her husband, Scot, plus dogs Kezzie and Thor, and assorted chickens and other critters enjoy country living and time in the woods.

Noelle Stevenson author of Nimona

Noelle Stevenson is an American cartoonist and animation producer.

While attending MICA, Stevenson gained fame as a fan artist, under the name “gingerhaze”, for her “hipster Lord of the Rings” characters. In 2012, soon after posting the first few installments of Nimona online, Stevenson signed with a literary agent, who helped her sign with HarperCollins to publish Nimona as a graphic novel. For her work on Nimona, Stevenson won Slate Magazine’s 2012 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Web Comic of the Year, and the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint.

Follow her online on Twitter.

Ali Benjamin author of The Thing About Jellyfish

Ali Benjamin is a National Book Award Finalist for The Thing About Jellyfish, and the co-writer for HIV-positive teen Paige Rawl’s coming-of-age memoir Positive. She is a member of New England Science Writers and has written for The Boston Globe Magazine, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, and Sesame Street. She lives in Massachusetts.

Josh Sundquist author of We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a true story

Josh Sundquist is a Paralympic ski racer, cancer survivor, popular YouTube vlogger, motivational speaker, and Halloween enthusiast. Every Tuesday, Josh releases a new video to 200,000-plus subscribers on his YouTube channel.

As a motivational speaker, Josh has inspired audiences across the world. His speeches blend humor and heartfelt storytelling. He also performs standup comedy in an interactive one-man show on Friday nights in Los Angeles.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2015 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include a haunting peek at the life of a teenage girl in 1950s New Orleans; a tense narrative with a mix of pulse-quickening fight scenes and heart-stopping near escapes; and a mind-blowing thriller that delivers a shocking twist ending.

Jacqueline Woodson author of Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio and lived in Nelsonville, Ohio before her family moved south. During her early years she lived in Greenville, South Carolina, before moving to Brooklyn at about the age of seven.

As an author, Woodson’s known for the detailed physical landscapes she writes into each of her books. She places boundaries everywhere—social, economic, physical, sexual, racial—then has her characters break through both the physical and psychological boundaries to create a strong and emotional story. She is also known for her optimism. She has said that she dislikes books that do not offer hope

Jandy Nelson author of I’ll Give You the Sun 

Jandy Nelson is an American author of young adult fiction. Prior to her career as an author, she worked for 13 years as a literary agent at Manus & Associates Literary Agency. She holds a BA from Cornell University, a MFA in poetry from Brown University, and a MFA in children’s writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Nelson lives in San Francisco, California.

Nelson’s first novel, The Sky Is Everywhere, follows seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker as she copes with her sister’s death. I’ll Give You the Sun, her second book, was listed on numerous best-of-the-year lists, including the 2015 YALSA Top 10 Best Fiction for Young Adults, Time magazine’s Top 10 YA Books, and the American Library Association Rainbow List Top 10.

Cat Winters author of In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Winters spent her childhood in Laguna Niguel, California, not far from Disneyland, which may explain her love of haunted mansions, bygone eras, and fantasylands. She received degrees in drama and English from the University of California, Irvine, and formerly worked in publishing. She now lives in a suburb outside of Portland, Oregon, surrounded by forests that offer ample inspiration for her Gothic, atmospheric tales.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds received three starred reviews and was a finalist for YALSA’s Morris Award for debut YA fiction.

Neal Bascomb author of The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi

Neal Bascomb is an American journalist and author. He is known for his books on popular history.

After graduation, he worked as a journalist in London, Paris, and Dublin. He was an editor for St. Martin’s Press, and in 2000, he began writing books full-time. He has contributed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times.

He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Ruta Sepetys author of Out of the Easy

Ruta Sepetys is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction.  As an author she is passionate about the power of history and literature to foster global awareness and connectivity.

Born and raised in Michigan, Ruta earned a B.S. in International Finance from Hillsdale College. While overseas, she studied at the Centre d’études Européennes in Toulon, France and at the ICN Graduate Business School in Nancy, France. Ruta currently lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.

Elizabeth Wein author of Rose Under Fire

Elizabeth E. Wein was born in New York City, New York on October 2, 1964. She moved to England when she was three. When she was six, her father was sent to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where she lived from 1970 to 1973.

Wein moved back to the United States when her parents separated, and she was raised by her mother in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania until her death in a car accident in 1978, after which Wein lived with her maternal grandparents. She wrote her first novel at age 11.

Wein attended Yale University and, after a year of work-study in England, spent seven years getting a PhD in Folklore at the University of Pennsylvania. Wein moved to England with her English husband Tim in 1995 and settled in Scotland in 2000. She and Tim have two children.

Cammie McGovern author of Say What You Will

Cammie was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter a high school teacher, and a university professor. Her older sister is actress Elizabeth McGovern.

Cammie currently lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her husband and three sons, the oldest of whom is autistic. Many of her life experiences with her family, autism and starting Whole Children influenced her writings.

Marie Lu author of The Young Elites

Lu was born in 1984 in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, and later moved to Beijing. In 1989, she and her family moved to the United States during the Tiananmen Square Protest. She attended the University of Southern California and interned at Disney Interactive Studios.

Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Sharon McKay author of War Brothers; art by Daniel Lafrance

Sharon E. McKay is a Canadian author of novels and graphic novels for children and young adults. She was born in 1954 in Montreal, Quebec, and earned a B.A. from York University in 1978. She lives in Prince Edward Island.

Daniel Lafrance

Without having gone to any art or animation schools, Daniel started working in animation in 1984 as an apprentice at studio Pascal Blais in Montreal to eventually become a senior animator at Disney Canada by 1996. He transitioned to being a full time storyboard artist in 2002.

His 2013 graphic novel War Brothers was nominated for an Eisner award.

Daniel lives in Toronto, Canada.

E. Lockhart author of We Were Liars

Emily Jenkins, who sometimes uses the pen name E. Lockhart, is an American writer of children’s picture books, young-adult novels, and adult fiction.

Jenkins grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Seattle, Washington. In high school she attended summer drama schools at Northwestern University and the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. She went to Vassar College, where she studied illustrated books, and earned a doctorate in English literature from Columbia University. She currently lives in the New York City area.

CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2014 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The award winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 20th.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2014 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include an unforgettable story about two misfits in love; a fantastical fairy-tale packed with allusions to Grimm Brothers’ tales; and an unforgettable true story about a young woman who dared to make a difference.

Rick Yancey author of The 5th Wave

Rick was born in Miami, Florida and three days later his new parents drove 225 miles from their hometown of Lakeland to meet him. Their first impression must have been all right, because they decided to give him a home.

Rick loved to read from an early age. Dr. Seuss, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes and Lord of the Rings are among his favourites. When he isn’t writing or thinking about writing or traveling the country talking about writing, Rick is hanging out with his family.

Robyn Schneider author of The Beginning of Everything

Robyn Schneider is a writer, actor, and online personality. She is a graduate of Columbia University, where she studied creative writing, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where she studied medical ethics. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Steve Sheinkin author of Bomb: The Race to Build – And Steal – The World’s Most Powerful Weapon

Steve Sheinkin was born in Brooklyn, NY, and lived with his family in Mississippi and Colorado before moving back to New York and settling in the suburbs north of New York City. As a kid his favorite books were action stories and outdoor adventures.

After attending Syracuse University Sheinkin moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for the National Audubon Society. After an unsuccessful stint in the movie business, Steve moved to Brooklyn and started working for an educational publishing company. He wrote his last textbook in 2008. His first non-textbook history book was King George: What Was His Problem? – full of all the stories about the American Revolution that he was never allowed to put into textbooks.

Steve currently lives with his wife, Rachel, and their two young kids in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Rainbow Rowell author of Eleanor & Park

Rowell was a columnist and ad copywriter at the Omaha World-Herald from 1995 to 2012. After leaving this position, she began working for an ad agency and writing what would become her first published novel, Attachments. The novel, a contemporary romantic comedy about a company’s IT guy who falls in love with a woman whose email he has been monitoring, was published in 2011.

In 2012, Rowell completed the first draft of her young adult novel Fangirl for National Novel Writing Month. In 2013, Rowell published Fangirl and Eleanor & Park.

When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books and planning Disney World trips. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

David Levithan author of Every Day

Levithan was born in Short Hills, New Jersey. At nineteen, he received an internship at Scholastic Corporation where he began working on The Baby-sitters Club series. Levithan, who still works for Scholastic as an editorial director, is the founding editor of PUSH, a young-adult imprint of Scholastic Press focusing on new voices and new authors.

Levithan, whose first book was published in 2003, lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Tom McNeal author of Far Far Away

Tom holds a BA in English from UC Berkeley, an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine, and has been a Stegner Fellow and a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University. He was raised in Santa Ana, California, and spent his summers (and later taught school) in northwest Nebraska, where much of his fiction is set. He lives with Laura and their two sons, Sam and Hank, near San Diego, California.

Malala Yousafzai author of I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. In her short lifetime, she has already experienced devastating changes in her country, which has been transformed from a once peaceful land to a hotbed of terrorism. Malala, who now lives in Birmingham, England, says she has been given a second life, which she intends to devote to the good of the people and her belief that all girls everywhere deserve an education.

Patricia McCormick author of Never Fall Down

McCormick graduated from Rosemont College in 1974–1978, earned a MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1985–1986, and a MFA from the New School in 1999. She currently lives in New York City where she frequently contributes to several magazines and newspapers.

Her books rely heavily on research and interviews. To write her novel Sold, McCormick traveled to the brothels of India and the mountain villages of Nepal to interview survivors of sex trafficking. For her book Never Fall Down, she spent a month in Cambodia with a survivor of the Khmer Rouge Genocide.

Prudence Shen author of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong; illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks

Prudence Shen is a writer and caffeine addict who pays rent in New York even though she mostly lives in airports. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is her first book. You can follow Prudence on Twitter and Tumblr.

Faith Erin Hicks is a writer and artist in Halifax, Canada. Her first two graphic novels, Zombies Calling and The War at Ellsmere, were published by SLG Publishing. She has illustrated First Second’s Brain Camp and wrote and illustrated 2012’s Friends With Boys, a coming of age story with supernatural elements and a musical about zombies. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong is her most recent graphic novel.

Rachel Hartman author of Seraphina

Rachel earned a degree in comparative literature but eschewed graduate school in favour of bookselling and drawing comics. Born in Kentucky, she has lived in Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, England, and Japan. She now lives with her family in Vancouver.

Seraphina is her debut novel.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2013 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The award winner will be announced on 14 May 2013.

This year’s contending titles include a dystopian novel set in a futuristic Chicago where society is divided into five factions; a smart romance novel of life and death and the people caught in between; and a novel inspired by Manx, Irish, and Scottish legends of beautiful but deadly fairy horses.

Beth Revis author of Across the Universe

Beth Revis, a native of North Carolina, grew up in the Appalachian Mountains with a cemetery in her backyard. Despite this wildly successful debut, Revis’s path to publication was a hard-fought one, and she has the ten manuscripts before Across the Universe to prove it.

A former high-school English teacher, Beth currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and two massive dogs; she regularly forces them all to watch reruns of Firefly and Doctor Who. Visit her at https://www.bethrevis.com/

Vera Brosgol author of Anya’s Ghost

Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow, Russia, and emigrated with her family to the United States as a child. She received a diploma in Classical Animation from Sheridan College, and spent many years working in feature animation. Her first graphic novel, Anya’s Ghost, was published in 2011 by First Second Books and won an Eisner Award.

She lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves knitting and riding her bike. Vera can be found online at https://www.verabee.com/

Ruta Sepetys author of Between Shades of Gray

Born in Detroit, the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, Ruta was raised in a family of artists, readers, and music lovers. She earned a B.S. in International Finance from Hillsdale College. While overseas, she studied at the Centre d’études Européennes in Toulon, France and at the ICN Graduate Business School in Nancy, France.

Following graduation Sepetys moved to Los Angeles. Between Shades of Gray, about the genocide of Baltic people after the Soviet occupation in 1941, was critically acclaimed and translated into over 30 different languages.  Ruta currently lives with her family in the hills of Tennessee but you can visit her at http://rutasepetys.com/

Moira Young author of Blood Red Road

Moira was born in New Westminster, British Columbia. According to the author, she inherited her storytelling genes from a Cornish Methodist grandfather, who was a travelling boy preacher known as Sunny Jim. Blood Red Road, was published in 2011 to international critical acclaim. It won a host of literary prizes in Canada, the USA, France and the UK, including the Costa Children’s Book Award 2012. For more information regarding Moira and her career please visit http://moirayoung.com/

Veronica Roth author of Divergent

Veronica Roth, born on August 19, 1988 in New York City, wrote Divergent while on winter break in her senior year at Northwestern University. She found an agent by the following March.

Her career took off rapidly with the success of Divergent a 2011 Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Book, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 2011 and Winner of YALSA 2012 Teens’ Top Ten.

She married photographer Nelson Fitch in 2011. They reside in the Chicago area. You can visit her online at https://veronicarothbooks.com

John Green author of The Fault in Our Stars

John Michael Green, born August 24, 1977, graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. After graduating, Green spent five months working as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, while enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He intended to become an Episcopal priest, but his experiences of working in a hospital with children suffering from life-threatening illnesses inspired him to become an author.

Green lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife, Sarah Urist Green, whom he married on May 21, 2006. Green has obsessive-compulsive disorder and has discussed his struggles with mental illness extensively on YouTube. You can join the millions who follow John online at http://www.johngreenbooks.com/

Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler authors of The Future of Us

Jay Asher was born in Arcadia, California, on September 30, 1975. He attended Cuesta Community College and later California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he left during his junior year in order to pursue his career as a writer. He spent years trying to kick-start a career writing children’s picture books and has worked in various establishments, including an independent bookstore, an outlet bookstore, a chain bookstore, and two public libraries. When he is not writing, Jay plays guitar and goes camping.

You can visit Asher online at http://jayasher.blogspot.com/

Carolyn Mackler, from an early age, was always interested in writing. Beginning at age four she recorded stories on a tape recorder, and dictated her stories to her mother who wrote them down for her.

After graduating from Vassar College, Mackler briefly lived in Seattle, Washington. Upon returning to New York City she temporarily worked at Ms. magazine. In 2011, Mackler and Jay Asher, co-authored The Future of Us.

Mackler lives in Manhattan with her husband and their two children. You can check her out online at https://www.carolynmackler.com/

Ransom Riggs author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Ranson grew up on a farm on the Eastern shore of Maryland and also in a little house by the beach in Englewood, Florida. He started writing stories at a young age, on an old typewriter. One year, upon receiving a camera for Christmas, he became obsessed with photography.

He lives in Santa Monica, CA, with his wife, fellow novelist Tahereh Mafi. You can visit Ransom online at http://ransomriggs.com/

Maggie Stiefvater author of The Scorpio Races

Margaret “Maggie” Stiefvater was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As a child, she wanted to be a fighter pilot and race-car driver and was a voracious reader who enjoyed writing. By age 16, she was submitting manuscripts to publishers. By the time she had entered college, she had already written over 30 novels. In her spare time Maggie plays several musical instruments, including the bagpipes, and makes art.

Stiefvater is married and lives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia with her husband, two children, some cows, five dogs, a horse, an insane cat, and a number of miniature goats. You can visit her, and maybe the goats, online at https://maggiestiefvater.com/

Kenneth Oppel author of This Dark Endeavour

Oppel was born in Port Alberni, and spent his childhood in Victoria, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 1985, Oppel wrote his first book while at St. Michaels University School. Oppel forwarded the newly completed manuscript to a family friend who knew Roald Dahl, who in turn recommended it to his agent. Oppel went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts degree in cinema studies and English at Trinity College in the University of Toronto; it was here that he wrote his second novel.

Oppel moved to England and wrote a number of books during his stay. From 1995 to 1996, Oppel worked as an editor at Quill and Quire, the trade magazine of the Canadian publishing industry.

Oppel and his wife Philippa Sheppard, a Shakespeare Scholar and Instructor at the University of Toronto, live in Toronto with three children, Sophia, Nate and Julia. You can visit him online at http://kennethoppel.blogspot.com/

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2012 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The award winner will be announced on 29 May 2012.

This year’s contending novels include a New York Times bestselling tale of addiction; a dystopian novel written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem; and an unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town.

Ellen Hopkins author of Crank

Ellen Hopkins began her writing career in 1990 with nonfiction books for children. She has since written several verse novels exposing teenage struggles such as drug addiction and mental illness. Crank is based on the real-life experiences of her daughter, Cristal, and her addiction to methamphetamine that began at the age of seventeen.

Hopkins currently lives with her family in Carson City, Nevada, where she has founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative. You can follow Ellen on Twitter.

Jeff Kinney author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that he ran a comic strip called “Igdoof” in the campus newspaper, and realized that he wanted to be a cartoonist. In 1998 Jeff came up with the idea for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a story about a middle-school weakling named Greg Heffley. Jeff worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher in New York. The rest, as they say, is history!

Jeff currently lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts. You can learn more about Jeff and his books at https://wimpykid.com/

J. K. Rowling author of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965 at Yate General Hospital near Bristol, and grew up in England and Wales. According to Joanne, she grew up surrounded by books. “I lived for books,’’ she has said. “I was your basic common-or-garden bookworm, complete with freckles and National Health spectacles.”

Jo conceived the idea of Harry Potter in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London King’s Cross. Over the next five years, she began to map out all seven books of the series.

The Harry Potter novels have now sold over 450 million copies worldwide and been translated into 77 languages. Rowling has been married to Dr Neil Murray since 2001. They live in Edinburgh with their son, David (born 2003) and daughter, Mackenzie (born 2005). You can visit Rowling online at https://www.jkrowling.com/

Gary Paulsen author of Hatchet

Born May 17, 1939, Gary Paulsen is an American writer of young adult literature, best known for coming of age stories about the wilderness. Although he was never a dedicated student, Paulsen developed a passion for reading at an early age. After a librarian gave him a book to read — along with his own library card — he was hooked.

Running away from home at the age of fourteen and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen acquired a taste for adventure. He is currently the author of more than 200 books and has written more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. You can follow Gary on Facebook and Twitter.

Suzanne Collins author of The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins, author of the groundbreaking Hunger Games, was born on August 10, 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles series for middle grade readers. With her husband Charles, Collins has two children, Charlie and Isabella. Her books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. You can find her online at www.suzannecollinsbooks.com.

Harper Lee author of To Kill a Mockingbird

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, the youngest of four children. She grew up in Monroeville, a small town in southwest Alabama where her father was a lawyer who also served in the state legislature from 1926–1938. After graduating from high school in 1944, she attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery for a year, then transferred to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she studied law for several years and wrote for the university newspaper. Her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, became an instant bestseller and won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.

Rick Riordan author of The Lightning Thief

Richard Russell Riordan Jr. was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Alamo Heights High School, and studied English and History at the University of Texas in Austin; he received his teaching certification in those subjects from the University of Texas in San Antonio. He taught English and Social Studies for eight years at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco. His big breakthrough was The Lightning Thief (2005), the first novel in the five-volume Percy Jackson series, which placed a group of adolescents in a Greco-Roman mythological setting.

Rick currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons. You can find him online at http://rickriordan.com/

S. E. Hinton author of The Outsiders

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a voracious reader who loves horse-back riding; she has shown both jumping and dressage.

The Outsiders, which she wrote during high school, was published in 1967 by Viking. Hinton is credited with introducing the Young Adult genre and in 1988 received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens. Learn more about S. E. Hinton by visiting http://www.sehinton.com/

Jay Asher author of Thirteen Reasons Why

Jay Asher was born in Arcadia, California, on September 30, 1975. He attended Cuesta Community College and later California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he left during his junior year in order to pursue his career as a writer. He spent years trying to kick-start a career writing children’s picture books and has worked in various establishments, including an independent bookstore, an outlet bookstore, a chain bookstore, and two public libraries. When he is not writing, Jay plays guitar and goes camping.

You can visit Asher online at http://jayasher.blogspot.com/

Stephenie Meyer author of Twilight

Stephenie Meyer is an American novelist who, as a child, was an avid reader. She attended Brigham Young University, marrying at the age of twenty-one, before graduating with a degree in English in 1997. With no prior experience as an author, the idea for the Twilight series was conjured in a dream she had about a handsome male vampire in love with a human girl.

She lives in Arizona with her husband and sons. You can follow news and updates about Stephenie at https://stepheniemeyer.com/