Author Information

Laurie Halse Anderson

Her Blog: http://madwomanintheforest.com/

The Age of Miracles

Karen Thompson Walker was born and raised in San Diego, California, where The Age of Miracles is set. She studied English and creative writing at UCLA, where she wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin. After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the San Diego area before moving to New York City to attend the Columbia University MFA program.

A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work—sometimes while riding the subway.

She is the recipient of the 2011 Sirenland Fellowship as well as a Bomb Magazine fiction prize. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Never Fall Down

Patricia McCormick, a two-time National Book Award finalist, is the author of five critically acclaimed novels – Never Fall Down, a novel based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia by playing music; Purple Heart, a suspenseful psychological novel that explores the killing of a 10-year-old boy in Iraq; Sold, a deeply moving account of sexual trafficking; My Brother’s Keeper, a realistic view of teenage substance abuse; and Cut, an intimate portrait of one girl’s struggle with self-injury.

McCormick grew up in central Pennsylvania, went to Catholic grade school, high school, then Rosemont College. She worked as an assistant press secretary to the Governor of Pennsylvania from 1974-78, then went to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. McCormick worked as a reporter for daily newspapers, and went into magazine journalism where she wrote book and movie reviews. McCormick studied fiction writing at The New School in New York City and went on to publish critically acclaimed books for young adults.

Never Fall Down was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2012 and was named a New York Times Notable Book for 2012. It was also named a Best Book of the Year by iTunes, The Huffington Post, School Library Journal and the Chicago Public Library.

McCormick was named a New York Foundation on the Arts fellow in 2004 and a MacDowell fellow in 2009. She is also the winner of the 2009 German Peace Prize for Youth Literature.

McCormick currently lives Manhattan.