Edward Irving Wortis, better known by the pen name Avi, is an American author of young adult and children's literature. He is a winner of the Newbery Medal and twice one of the runners-up.

Jim Benton is a New York Times bestselling author and the creator of many licensed properties, including It's Happy Bunny. He's created a kids' TV series, designed clothing, and written books, such as Franny K. Steinand the bestselling Dear Dumb Diary series.

Meg Cabot is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of books for both adults and tweens/teens. There have been over 25 million copies of Meg’s nearly 80 published books sold in 38 countries. Her last name rhymes with habit, as in “her books can be habit forming.” She currently lives in Key West, Florida with her husband and various cats.

Patrick Carman is the award-winning author of many books for young adults and children. He grew up in Salem, Oregon, and graduated from Willamette University. His birthday is February 27th, 1966. He spent a decade living in Portland, where he worked in advertising, game design, and technology.

Kiera Cass

I am a graduate of Radford University with a B.S. in History. I grew up in South Carolina and currently live in Christiansburg, Virginia with my electrical engineer hubby, car-obsessed son, and princess-loving daughter. I'm a #1 New York Times bestseller, woohoo! I'm also a valued customer at my local cupcake shop.

Classandra Clare is a notable American young adult novel writer. She is famous for her paranormal YA series The Mortal Instruments. She earned numerous awards and prizes for her debut novel.

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Clare was born as Judith Rumelt on July 27, 1973 to American Jewish parents, Elizabeth and Richard Rumelt, in Tehran, Iran. 

Chris Colfer is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Golden Globe-winning actor. He was honored as a member of the TIME 100, Time magazine's annual list of the one hundred most influential people in the world, and his books include Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal, and the books in The Land of Stories series: The Wishing Spell, The Enchantress Returns, A Grimm Warning, and Beyond the Kingdoms.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1962, Suzanne Collins was the daughter of an Air Force pilot, and her family moved several times when she was young. After proving herself as a talented children's television writer, Collins published her debut book, Gregor the Overlander, the first book of The Underland Chronicles. In 2008, the first book of The Hunger Games series was published. Her trilogy of Hunger Game books went on to become a motion picture series starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen.

Ally Condie received a degree in English Teaching from Brigham Young University and spent a number of years teaching high school English in Utah and in upstate New York. She lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors.

James Dashner was born and raised in Georgia but now lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series: The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, and The Kill Order. His newest series is The Mortality Doctrine: The Eye of Minds, The Rule of Thoughts, and The Game of Lives.

New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, has been creating books for over a decade. Tony always imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold millions of copies, been adapted into a feature film, and has been translated in over thirty countries.

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Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare) and The Darkest Part of the Forest. 

Chris d’Lacey is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestselling Last Dragon Chronicles series; the Dragons of Wayward Crescent series; the UNICORNE Files trilogy; and The Erth Dragons series, The Wearle, Dark Wyng, and The New Age. Chris lives with his wife, Jay, in Devon, England, where they are at work on his next book.

Lois Duncan Steinmetz (April 28, 1934 – June 15, 2016), known as Lois Duncan, was an American writer, novelist, poet, and journalist. She is best known for her young-adult novels, and has been credited by historians as a pioneering figure in the development of young adult fiction, particularly in the genres of horror, thriller, and suspense.

John Flanagan grew up in Sydney, Australia hoping to be a writer. It wasn't until he wrote a highly uncomplimentary poem about a senior executive at the agency he worked, however, that his talent was revealed. It turned out one of the company directors agreed with John's assessment of the executive, and happily agreed to train John in copywriting. After writing advertising copy for the next two decades, John teamed with an old friend to develop a television sitcom, Hey Dad!, which went on to air for eight years. John began writing Ranger's Apprentice for his son, Michael, ten years ago, and is still hard at work on the series. He currently lives in the suburb of Manly, Australia, with his wife.

John Grisham is the author of 21 novels, one work of non-fiction, and one collection of stories. His works are translated into 38 languages. He lives in Virginia and Mississippi.

Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of many critically and popularly acclaimed YA and middle grade novels, including the Children of Exile series, The Missing series, the Under Their Skin series, and the Shadow Children series. A graduate of Miami University (of Ohio), she worked for several years as a reporter for The Indianapolis News. She also taught at the Danville (Illinois) Area Community College. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio.

Anthony Horowitz, OBE is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His work for young adult readers includes The Diamond Brothers series, the Alex Rider series, and The Power of Five series.

Erin Hunter is the pseudonym of five people: Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui T. Sutherland, Gillian Philip, and Inbali Iserles, as well as editor Victoria Holmes. Together, they write the Warriors series as well as the Seekers and Survivors series. Erin Hunter is working on a new series now called Bravelands. Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.

English writer James Brian Jacques is best known for his Redwall series of novels, along with his short story collections and the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. Born in Liverpool in 1939, he left school when he was fifteen to become a merchant sailor. His first book, Redwall, was based on stories he told to children at a school for the blind where he delivered milk. A former teacher championed the manuscript to a publisher, who not only published the book but contracted with Jacques for five more volumes in the series. The books have since sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into twenty-eight languages. An animated series based on Redwall was aired on PBS. Jacques died in 2011.

Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York. 
She is the author of the Fallen novels, the Teardrop novels, and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. She lives in Laurel Canyon with her family.

Jeff Kinney is an online game developer, designer, the creator of Poptropica.com, and the #1 New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of the wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Born in Maryland in the 1970s, Jeff spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. Although Jeff started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 1998, it wasn't until spring of 2007 that his book was published. Jeff lives Plainville, Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.

Gordon Korman has written more than fifty middle-grade and teen novels. Favorites include the New York Times #1 bestseller The 39 Clues: One False Note, The Juvie Three, Son of the Mob, Born to Rock, and Schooled. Though he didn't play football in high school, Gordon's been a lifelong fan and season ticket holder. He says, "I've always been fascinated by the 'culture of collision' in football and wanted to explore it-not just from the highlight films but from its darker side as well." Gordon lives with his family on Long Island, New York.

Clive Staples Lewis was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He held academic positions at both Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Lois Lowry is a multi-award-winning author who has written many popular books. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of the popular Anastasia Krupnik books and was the recipient of the Newbery Medal for Number the Stars and for The Giver.

Marie Lu is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Legend, Prodigy, and Champion, as well as The Young Elites. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. 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, with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.

D.J. MacHale is the author of the bestselling book series Pendragon – Journal of an Adventure Through Time and Space; the spooky Morpheus Road trilogy and the whimsical picture book The Monster Princess. In addition to his published works, he has written, directed and produced numerous award-winning television series and movies for young people including Are You Afraid of the Dark?; Flight 29 Down and Tower of Terror. D.J. lives with his family in Southern California.

Marissa Meyer is a fangirl at heart, with a closet full of costumes, a Harry Potter wand on her desk, and a Tuxedo Mask doll hanging from her rear view mirror. Han and Leia are still her OTP. She may or may not be a cyborg. 
Marissa writes books for teens, including the NYT bestselling series: The Lunar Chronicles.

Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English. She lives with her husband and three young sons in Phoenix, Arizona.

Brandon Mull has worked as a comedian, a filing clerk, a patio installer, a movie promoter, a copywriter, and briefly as a chicken stacker. For a couple of years, he lived in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile, where he learned Spanish and juggling. He currently lives in Utah in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his four children and dog named Buffy. Brandon is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Fablehaven, Beyonders, and Five Kingdoms series.

Alyson Noël is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three novels, including the Immortals, Riley Bloom, and Soul Seekers series. Born and raised in Orange County, California, she’s lived in both Mykonos and Manhattan and is now settled back in Southern California, where she’s working on her next book. 

Christopher James Paolini is an American author. He is the author of the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance. He lives in Paradise Valley, Montana, where he wrote his first book.

James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author, best known for his many enduring fictional characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Middle School, I Funny, and Jacky Ha-Ha. Patterson’s writing career is characterized by a single mission: to prove to everyone, from children to adults, that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read,” only people who haven’t found the right book. He writes full-time and lives in Florida with his family.

Gary Paulsen is one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers. He has written more than one hundred book for adults and young readers, and is the author of three Newbery Honor titles: Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He divides his time among Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, and the Pacific.

Susan Beth Pfeffer was born in New York City in 1948. She grew up in the city and its nearby suburbs and spent summers in the Catskill Mountains. When she was six her father wrote and published a book on constitutional law, and Pfeffer decided that she, too, wanted to be a writer. That year she wrote her first story, about the love between an Oreo cookie and a pair of scissors. However, it wasn't until 1970 that her first book, Just Morgan, was published. She wrote it during her last semester at New York University; since then, she has been a full-time writer for young people. 

Kathy Reichs is the author of nineteen New York Times bestselling novels and the co-author, with her son, Brendan Reichs, of six novels for young adults. Like the protagonist of her Temperance Brennan series, Reichs is a forensic anthropologist—one of fewer than one hundred ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she is a former vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Reichs’s own life, as much as her novels, is the basis for the TV show Bones,one of the longest-running series in the history of the Fox network.

Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children -- Los Angeles. He was raised on a steady diet of ghost stories and British comedy, which probably explains the novels he writes. 

Rick Riordan is a teacher and a writer, and has won many awards for his mystery novels for adults. He says that the idea for Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief first came to him while he was teaching Greek mythology at middle school in San Francisco. But rumour has it that Camp Half Blood actually exists, and Rick spends his summers there recording the adventures of young demigods.Rick lives in Texas with his wife and two sons.

Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series and Carve the Mark. She was born in a Chicago suburb, and studied creative writing at Northwestern University. She and her husband and dog currently live in Chicago.

J. K. Rowling was born in 1965, and grew up in Chepstow, Gwent. She studied at Exeter University, where she gained a French and Classics degree, and where her course included one year in Paris. As a postgraduate she moved to London to work at Amnesty International, doing research into human rights abuses in Francophone Africa.

 Rachel Russell grew up in Saint Joseph, Michigan, a small city located on the shore of Lake Michigan. She has 2 younger sisters and 2 younger twin brothers. She wrote and illustrated her first book in 6th grade as a birthday present for her brothers. She's an attorney but her passion is writing children’s books. She currently resides in Northern Virginia with her very spoiled Yorkie who actually believes she is half human and half cat.

Ellen Schreiber was an actress and a stand-up comedienne before becoming a writer and moving to her own Dullsville. She is the author of Teenage Mermaid, Comedy Girl, and all of the books in the Vampire Kisses series. Vampire Kisses is an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and an IRA/CBC Young Adults' Choice.

American illustrator and writer who has worked on children's books and was awarded the 2008 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration for his first long work, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Darren Shan (born July 2, 1972 in London, England) is the pen name of the Irish author Darren O'Shaughnessy, as well as the name of the protagonist of his book series The Saga of Darren Shan, also known as The Cirque Du Freak Series in the United States. He is the author of the series The Demonata, The Saga of Larten Crepsley, and Zom-B. He has also released the stand-alone novel, The Thin Executioner, and the stand-alone short novels, Koyasan, and Hagurosan.

Shel Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930, in Chicago. Silverstein studied music and established himself as a musician and composer, writing songs including “A Boy Named Sue,” popularized by Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn’s “One’s on the Way.” Silverstein also wrote children’s literature, including The Giving Tree and the poetry collection A Light in the Attic. He died in 1999.

Born and raised in the American mid-west, Jeff Smith learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and watching animation on TV. After four years of drawing comic strips for Ohio State's student newspaper, Smith co-founded the Character Builders animation studio in 1986. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book BONE, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville.

NYT Bestselling author Roland Smith is a former Zoo Curator and Research Biologist. He has published more than twenty novels for young adults. He and his wife, Marie, who is also an author, live on a small farm near Portland, Oregon.

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Snicket is the author of several children's books, also serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events (his best-known work) and a character within it and All the Wrong Questions.

Born in 1943, R.L. Stine started out writing jokes and funny stories. He moved to New York City in the mid-1960s, after graduating from The Ohio State University. In 1986, Stine published Blind Date, his first horror novel for young adults. He launched his popular Fear Street book series three years later. Beginning in 1992, Stine found international acclaim writing the Goosebumps series, which spurred the creation of additional series and nearly 200 books.

 After a tumultuous past as a history major, calligraphy instructor, wedding musician, technical editor, and equestrian artist, I'm now a full-time writer living in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, with my charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, four neurotic dogs who fart recreationally, and a 1973 Camaro named Loki. I'm also an award-winning colored pencil artist, play several musical instruments (most infamously, the bagpipes), and recently acquired a race car.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE FRSL was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. 

It all began in 1993 when Eric was teaching a Grade 5 class.  His students were reluctant readers and writers and Eric began to write to encourage them to become more involved in literature.  His first novel, Stand Your Ground, was created for this class.  It is set in the school where Eric was teaching, Vista Heights Public School, and some of the features of the community of Streetsville and many of the names of his students were incorporated into the story.

Scott Westerfeld's teen novels include the Uglies series, the Leviathan, Zeroes, and Midnighters trilogies, and Afterworlds. Scott was born in Texas, and alternates summers between Sydney, Australia, and New York City. 

Orphans Amy and Dan belong to a rich and powerful family related to nearly everyone important in history. When their grandmother dies, she leaves 39 clues, spread across the planet, to a treasure that will make the finder immensely powerful. So all the relatives, none of them decent or honest (except Amy and Dan, of course), compete to find and solve the clues while trying to eliminate their competition.

The Bluford Series is set in Bluford High School, the fictional school all the main characters attend. Each novel features a teenage protagonist facing difficult challenges in and out of school. Topics explored in the books include bullying, school violence, teenage pregnancy, divorce, peer pressure, and substance abuse. Despite these gritty topics, the Bluford Series has been praised widely for its engaging stories and responsible handling of difficult subject matter, earning positive reviews in Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.