Authors

Featuring Holly Black, Kate Brian, Ellen Hopkins, Lisa McMann, L.J. Smith, Scott Westerfeld and more!

  • Jessica Bendinger

    Jessica Bendinger is a screenwriter and director whose projects include writing Bring it On and writing and directing Stick It. The Seven Rays is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles.

  • Holly Black

    Holly Black spent her early years in a decaying Victorian mansion where her mother fed her a steady diet of ghost stories and books about faeries. Her first book, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Teens, and has been translated into twelve languages. Her second teen novel, Valiant, was a recipient of the Andre Norton Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

  • Kate Brian

    Kieran Scott is the author of the Non-Blondes series. She also writes the New York Times bestselling series Private and Privilege under the pen name Kate Brian. She is currently at work on a brand new trilogy about life on the other side of the tracks, you know, where people are normal.

  • Stephanie Burgis

    Stephanie Burgis grew up in East Lansing, Michigan and received her B.A. in French Horn performance and Music History and her M.A. in Historical Musicology. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna. Stephanie has had several short stories published, but The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson: A Most Improper Magick is her debut novel. She lives in Yorkshire, England with her husband, baby, and border collie, Maya.

  • Deb Caletti

    Deb Caletti is also the author of The Queen of Everything; Honey, Baby, Sweetheart (a National Book Award Finalist); Wild Roses; The Nature of Jade; The Fortunes of Indigo Skye; and The Secret Life of Prince Charming. She lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest and is currently working on her next novel for teens.

  • Noni Carter

    Noni Carter is a writer and classical pianist. Her poetry has been published in Family Pictures, edited by Kwame Alexander. Good Fortune is her first novel. Noni grew up in Georgia with her parents, two sisters and brother. She currently attends Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  • Eileen Cook

    Eileen Cook spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer. Her first YA book, What Would Emma Do?, was published by Simon Pulse in December 2008.  You can read more about Eileen, her books, and the things that strike her as funny at eileencook.com. Eileen lives in Vancouver with her husband and dogs and no longer wishes to be anyone or anywhere else.

  • Ed Decter

    Along with his writing partner John J. Strauss, Ed Decter has written the movies There’s Something about Mary, The Santa Clause 2,and many others. During his years in show business Ed has interviewed, auditioned, hired, fired, and become friends with thousands of actors and actresses just like Chloe Gamble. Ed lives in Los Angeles with his family.

  • Sarah Beth Durst

    Sarah Beth Durst is the author of Ice, as well as Into the Wild, an Andre Norton Award Finalist for Young Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy, and its sequel, Out of the Wild.  She has been writing fantasy stories since she was ten years old and holds an English degree from Princeton University.  Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband and children, for whom she would happily journey east of the sun and west of the moon. 

  • Becca Fitzpatrick

    Becca Fitzpatrick grew up reading Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden with a flashlight under the covers. She graduated with a degree in health, which she promptly abandoned for storytelling. When not writing, she’s most likely running, prowling sale racks for reject shoes, or watching some crime dramas on TV. Hush, Hush is her first novel. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

  • Jenny Han

    Jenny Han has her master’s degree in creative writing for children from the New School. She lives in New York City. Shug was her first novel. Her second novel The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first in a trilogy.

  • Oscar Hijuelos

    Oscar Hijuelos is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE. He was a National Book Award nominee and also won the Rome Prize and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation for his adult books. DARK DUDE is his first young adult novel. He lives in New York City.

  • Nancy Holder

    USA Today bestselling author Nancy Holder has received four Bram Stoker awards for her supernatural fiction. She has served on the board of trustees for the Horror Writers Association. Her work has been translated into over two dozen languages, and she has more than seventy-eight books and two hundred short stories to her credit. Her books for Simon Pulse include the Wicked series and the novel Spirited. Nancy also recently published the novel Pretty Little Devils. She lives in San Diego with her daughter, Belle, and far too many animals.

  • Ellen Hopkins

    Ellen Hopkins is the New York Times bestselling author of Crank, Burned, Impulse, Glass, and Identical. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, with her husband and son. Hopkins' MYSPACE and Facebook pages get hundreds of hits every day from teens who claim Hopkins is the "only one who understands me".

  • Cynthia Kadohata

    Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning Kira-Kira, Cracker!, Weedflower, Outside Beauty and several critically-acclaimed adult novels, including The Floating World. She has published numerous short stories in such literary journals as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Grand Street, and the Mississippi Review. She lives in West Covina, California.

  • Lyah LeFlore

    Lyah B LeFlore is the author of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life an adult novel, I Got Your Back a non-fiction collaboration with Eddie and Gerald Levert, and is the coauthor of Cosmopolitan Girls a teen novel. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

  • D.J. MacHale

    D.J. MacHale is a writer, producer, and director of several popular television series and movies including Flight 29 Down and Are You Afraid of the Dark? His first book series, Pendragon, is a #1 New York Times bestselling series. D.J. lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with his wife and daughter.

  • Nina Malkin

    Nina Malkin is the author of three YA novels, one novella, and an adult memoir.  Before turning to books, Nina was a journalist specializing in entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyles.  She has held executive positions as an editor and writer at Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Teen People, and her work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Seventeen, Real Simple, In Style, and numerous other publications.  A New York native, Nina lives in Brooklyn with her musician husband and assorted felines.

  • Amanda Marrone

    Amanda Marrone is also the author of Uninvited and Revealers. She grew up on Long Island where she spent her time reading, drawing, watching insects, and suffering from an over-active imagination. She earned a B.A. in Education at SUNY Cortland and taught fifth and sixth grade in New Hampshire. She now lives in Shelton, Connecticut with her husband and two children.

  • Fredrick L. McKissack Jr.

    Fredrick McKissack has nearly 20 years experience as a writer and an editor. His articles, op-eds, and reviews have been published in The Washington Post, Vibe Magazine, and others. Born into a writing family, it’s very clear that Fred has inherited his mother’s, Pat McKissack, gorgeous way with words! He lives in Ft. Wayne, Ind. with his wife, Lisa and their son, Mark.

  • Lisa McMann

    Lisa McMann is also the author of Wake and Fade. She lives with her family in the Phoenix area and once worked at Pooh's Corner, and independent bookstore in Michigan.

  • Terra Elan McVoy

    After earning her MFA in creative writing, Terra Elan McVoy worked as an editorial assistant at Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. She now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is a manager of the independent children's bookstore Little Shop of Stories, a coordinator of the Decatur Book Festival, and an editor of The Duck & Herring Co. Pocket Field Guide, a seasonal literary journal. Terra cries every year when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmans. Pure is her first novel.

  • Neesha Meminger

    Neesha Meminger was born in Punjab, India at the tail end of the 1960s, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She currently lives in New York City, with her husband and children. Shine, Coconut Moon is her first novel.

  • Hannah Moskowitz

    Hannah Moskowitz lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she is currently completing her senior year of high school, and writing her second novel.

  • James A. Owen

    James A. Owen is the author of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series and the co-author/illustrator of Lost Treasures of the Pirates of the Caribbean. He is Executive Director of Coppervale International, an art and design studio which also published magazines and develops and produces television and film projects. James has written and illustrated two dozen Starchild comics, the seven-novel Mythworld series, and others. He lives in Arizona.

  • Serena Robar

    Serena Robar is the author of three YA vampire books and co-author of FENDI, FERRAGAMO & FANGS, all from Penguin. Giving Up the V is her first novel with Simon Pulse. She lives in Maple Valley, Washington.

  • Alex Sanchez

    Alex Sanchez spent almost 15 years working with youth (as a juvenile probation officer, a counselor at a runaway shelter, and as a volunteer for SMYAL, an organization for sexual minority youth based in Washington, D.C.). He is also the author of the teen novels The God Box, Getting It, Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road, as well as the Lambda Award-winning middle-grade novel So Hard to Say. He lives in Thailand and Hollywood, Florida.

  • Sarah Rees Brennan

    Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic), but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. After living briefly in New York and doing a creative writing MA and library work in Surrey, England, she has returned to Dublin, Ireland, to write. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it.

  • Lisa Schroeder

    Lisa Schroeder is a native Oregonian, which means her childhood summers were spent camping, fishing, reading books (of course!), and playing in the sun, when it finally came out. These days, Lisa spends her summers, and every other part of the year, sharing all the wonderful things Oregon has to offer with her husband and two sons. She is the author of three verse novels for young adults published by Simon Pulse - I Heart You, You Haunt Me, Far From You, and Chasing Brooklyn (coming January, 2010).

  • Elizabeth Scott

    Elizabeth Scott grew up in a town so small it didn't even have a post office, though it did boast an impressive cattle population. She's sold hardware, pantyhose, and had a memorable three-day stint in the dot.com industry, where she learned that she really didn't want a career burning cds. Elizabeth is also the author of bloom, Perfect You, Living Dead Girl, Something, Maybe and, from HarperTeen, Stealing Heaven and Letters to Julia. She lives just outside Washington, D.C. with her husband, firmly believes you can never own too many books.

  • Neal Shusterman

    Neal Shusterman is the author of many novels for young adults, including Unwind, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, the Skinjacker trilogy and Downsiders, which was nominated for twelve state reading awards.  He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows such as Animorphs and Goosebumps. The father of four children, Neal lives in southern California.

  • L.J. Smith

    L.J. Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of the Night World series and The Vampire Diaries series, and has written over twenty-five books for young adults.  She lives in the Bay Area of California where she enjoys reading, hiking, and traveling.  Her favorite place is a cabin in Point Reyes National Park, where tall redwoods and beaches with aquamarine water are crowded close together.  Come visit her at www.ljanesmith.net, where she has lots of free stories for downloading.

  • Lauren Strasnick

    Lauren Strasnick grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, now lives in Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of Emerson College and the California Institute of the Arts MFA Writing Program. She wrote her first short story, “Yours Truly, The Girls from Bunk Six,” in a cloth-bound 5x4 journal, in the fifth grade. Nothing Like You is Lauren’s first novel.

  • Allison van Diepen

    Allison van Diepen is a high school Social Studies teacher who is often mistaken for a student. She spent three and a half years teaching at one of Brooklyn's most dangerous public high schools. She now lives in Ottawa, Canada. She is the author of Street Pharm and Snitch.

  • Jessica Verday

    Jessica Verday wrote the first draft of The Hollow by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. She is currently hand-writing her second novel, the continuation of Abbey and Caspian’s story, from her home in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

  • Debbie Viguie

    Debbie Viguié holds a degree in creative writing from UC Davis. Her Simon Pulse books include the Wicked series and the novels Scarlet Moon and Midnight Pearls. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Scott.

  • Adrienne Maria Vrettos

    Adrienne Maria Vrettos grew up on a mountain in southern California, where she rode dirt bikes and made a mean double-mud pie. Her first novel, Skin, was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Her second novel, Sight, was a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. Adrienne lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

  • Peter Walsh

    Peter Walsh is a clutter expert and organizational consultant who characterizes himself as part-contractor and part therapist. He can be heard weekly on The Peter Walsh Show on the Oprahand Friends XM radio network, is a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and was also the host of the hit TLC show Clean Sweep. Peter holds a master's degree with a specialty in educational psychology. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.

  • Robin Wasserman

    Robin Wasserman is the author of Skinned, Crashed, Hacking Harvard, the Seven Deadly Sins series, the NY Times #1 bestselling novelization A Cinderella Story, and the middle-grade series Chasing Yesterday (Scholastic). Ms. Wasserman lives in Brooklyn, NY.

  • Scott Westerfeld

    Scott Westerfeld is the author of Leviathan, and the Uglies series. His other novels include The Last Days, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and the sequel to Peeps; So Yesterday, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and the Midnighters trilogy. Scott alternates summers between New York City and Sydney, Australia.

  • Rick Yancey

    Rick Yancey is the author of The Monstrumologist. He has also written the award-winning series The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, as well as several novels for adults. His memoir, Confessions of a Tax Collector, was named by Wall Street Journal as one of the five best books on taxes ever written. He worked as a field officer for the IRS before turning to writing full time in 2004. Rick lives in Florida with his wife Sandy and two sons.