Leslie Vedder
Leslie Vedder (she/her) is a queer ace author who loves girl adventurers and heroes! She grew up on fantasy books, anime, fanfiction and the Lord of the Rings movies, and met her true love in high school choir. She currently lives in Colorado with her wife and two spoiled house cats.
When she's not reading or writing, you can find her watching anime and sci-fi shows, walking in the woods and pretending they're enchanted forests, or playing old video games. She always collects all the Skulltulas in Zelda and all the Dalmation puppies in Kingdom Hearts.
Her debut YA THE BONE SPINDLE was an ABA indie bestseller.
If you like author Leslie Vedder here is the list of authors you may also like
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Melissa Bashardoust
Melissa Bashardoust (pronounced BASH-ar-doost) received her degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she rediscovered her love for creative writing, children’s literature, and fairy tales and their retellings. She currently lives in Southern California with a cat named Alice and more copies of Jane Eyre than she probably needs. Girls Made of Snow and Glass is her first novel.
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As much as I appreciate you all, I'm not active on Goodreads, so if you'd like to get in touch, please see the contact page on my website above. Thanks and happy reading! -
Melissa Grey
Melissa Grey penned her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn't stopped writing since. As an undergrad at Yale, she learned how ride a horse and shoot a bow and arrow at the same time. She also has a Masters in Art History but that's a much less useful skill.
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She is the author of The Girl at Midnight trilogy, Rated, and the forthcoming The Valiant Ladies of Potosi.
To learn more about Melissa, visit melissa-grey.com and follow her on Twitter @meligrey. -
Audrey Coulthurst
Audrey Coulthurst is the author of critically acclaimed novels for young adults, such as the Of Fire and Stars series and Starworld (co-authored with Paula Garner). After studying music history and composition as an undergraduate and earning a Master’s degree in Book Publishing, she somehow ended up leading a double life working in finance by day and writing novels by night. Audrey was a Lambda Literary Fellow in 2013 and a Publishers Weekly Flying Start in 2016. Her debut novel Of Fire and Stars was named to the Kids’ Indie Next List, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was listed among Vulture’s 38 Best Queer YA Novels in 2018. Audrey grew up riding horses in the Willamette Valley, made most of her best friends while liv
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Alexandra Overy
Alexandra grew up in London and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her undergraduate degree in history at UCLA, followed by her MFA in screenwriting also at UCLA. She loves writing in all formats, from novels to screenplays to graphic novels, always centring on fierce women and morally grey characters, often with a bit of magic and murder. She is the author of the These Feathered Flames duology and the middle grade fantasy duology The Gingerbread Witch.
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When she’s not writing, she can be found baking, fangirling over her favourite books, or cuddling her foster kittens. -
Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar (pronounced Sacker), born March 20, 1954, is an American author of children's books.
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Louis was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1954. When he was nine, he moved to Tustin, California. He went to college at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated in 1976, as an economics major. The next year, he wrote his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School .
He was working at a sweater warehouse during the day and wrote at night. Almost a year later, he was fired from the job. He decided to go to law school. He attended Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
His first book was published while he was in law school. He graduated in 1980. For the next eight years he worked part-time as a lawyer and continued to t -
Laurie Halse Anderson
UPDATE! Rebellion 1776 is out! The New York Times wrote, "Filled with immersive detail, expert delineations of complex characters, and both harsh and loving reality, Rebellion 1776 provides young readers with a true experience of a historic moment in time that resonates with today's world." Huzzah!
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Laurie Halse Anderson is the New York Times-bestselling author of many award-winning books including the groundbreaking, modern classic Speak, a National Book Award finalist which has sold over 3.5 million copies and been translated into 35 languages.
In 2023, Anderson was named the Laureate of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, long considered to be the de facto 'Nobel Prize for Children's Literature.'
A passionate spokesperson for the need to c -
Brian Selznick
Hello there. My name is Brian Selznick and I’m the author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I was born in 1966 in New Jersey. I have a sister who is a teacher, a brother who is a brain surgeon, and five nephews and one niece. I studied at The Rhode Island School of Design and after I graduated from college I worked at Eeyore’s Books for Children in New York City. I learned all about children’s books from my boss Steve Geck who is now an editor of children’s books at Greenwillow. While I was at Eeyore’s I also painted the windows for holidays and book events.
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My first book, The Houdini Box, which I both wrote and illustrated, was published in 1991 while I was still working at the bookstore. Since then, I have illustrated many -
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson loves bringing books and children together and feels lucky to have two careers that foster this. The children's librarian and author says, "It was destined from the day I was born. My mother found my name in a novel she was reading."
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Vaunda's first book, Always Gramma, was selected by the Children's Book Council as a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. Mayfield Crossing won the Georgia Children's Book in 1995, and Beyond Mayfield received a 1999 Parents' Choice Gold Award. Almost to Freedom, her most recent title, received a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration in 2004. In addition, Vaunda's poetry has been published in Cricket and Cicada magazines.
Vaunda has been a teacher, newspaper rep -
Renée Watson
Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel, What Momma Left Me debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction by The Independent Children's Booksellers Association.
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Renée’s one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City's Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze.
When Renée is not writing and performing, she is teaching. Renée has worked in public schools and community organizations as an artist in residence for several years, teachin -
Katherine Rundell
Katherine Rundell was born in 1987 and grew up in Africa and Europe. In 2008 she was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Her first book, The Girl Savage, was born of her love of Zimbabwe and her own childhood there; her second, Rooftoppers, was inspired by summers working in Paris and by night-time trespassing on the rooftops of All Souls. She is currently working on her doctorate alongside an adult novel.
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Source: Katherine Rundell -
Tahereh Mafi
Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs. She can usually be found over-caffeinated and stuck in a book. Shatter Me is her first series, with television rights optioned by ABC Signature Studios; Furthermore, her first middle grade novel, is on shelves now, and Whichwood, its darker companion, will be on shelves November 14, 2017.
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Sangu Mandanna
Sangu Mandanna was four years old when an elephant chased her down a forest road and she decided to write her first story about it. Seventeen years and many, many manuscripts later, she signed her first book deal. Sangu now lives in Norwich, a city in the east of England, with her husband and kids.
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Chris Baron
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Chris Baron is the award winning author of Novels for Children including ALL OF ME, an NCTE Notable Book, THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book/ a SLJ Best Book of 2021 & the forthcoming novels, THE GRAY a ProjectLIT 23-24 Selection and SPARK from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, and SECRET OF THE DRAGON GEMS, a Middle Grade novel co-authored with Rajani LaRocca from Little Bee Books, and editor of ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS: A MIDDLE GRADE PASSOVER ANTHOLOGY, from Abrams (24), He is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. He grew up in New York City, but he completed his MFA in Poetry in 1998 at SDSU. HE lives in San Diego with his family. He is represented by Rena Rossner from t -
Kay O'Neill
Kay O'Neill is an illustrator and graphic novelist from New Zealand. They are the author of Princess Princess Ever After, The Tea Dragon Society, Aquicorn Cove, and more. They mostly make gentle fantasy stories for younger readers, and are very interested in tea, creatures, things that grow, and the magic of everyday life.
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On an Instagram post 17th December 2020 the author shared that they use they/them pronouns and prefers to be called Kay. -
Ryan James Black
Ryan James Black is a writer from Manitoba, Canada, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and curmudgeonly bulldog, Frank. A history enthusiast with a penchant for horror and the perpetual sense of humor of an eleven-year-old, Ryan writes books that attempt to combine all three: mirth, macabre, and twists of real life stranger-than-fiction history. When not writing Ryan enjoys football, scary movies, and exploring the Great Outdoors with his family.
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His debut middle grade historical fantasy, The Dark Times of Nimble Nottingham, is forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books in August, 2025. -
M.K. England
M. K. England grew up on the Space Coast of Florida watching shuttle launches from the backyard. These days, they live on a micro-farm in rural Virginia packed with video and board games, plants, D&D books, Star Wars memorabilia, and their preschooler's giant personality. They're probably covered in dirt right now. MK is the author of ten novels for kids, teens, and adults and a forthcoming interactive novel with Choice of Games. You can find them at mkengland.com.
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For the latest news, you can subscribe to my irregular newsletter updates at mkengland.substack.com. I'm also on instagram (rarely, @mk_england) and on tumblr more informally (mkengland.tumblr.com)
(Just FYI, I don't accept friend requests because Amazon is weird about reviews but -
Sophie Gonzales
Sophie Gonzales writes young adult queer contemporary fiction with memorable characters, biting wit and endless heart.
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She is the author of THE LAW OF INERTIA, ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED and PERFECT ON PAPER. IF THIS GETS (co-written with Cale Dietrich) is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Wednesday Books / Macmillan.
When she isn’t writing, Sophie can be found ice skating, performing in musical theatre, and practicing the piano. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia where she works as a psychologist.
She is represented by Jessica Mileo of Inkwell Management. -
Michiko Aoyama
Michiko Aoyama was born in 1970 in Aichi Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. After university, she became a reporter for a Japanese newspaper based in Sydney before moving back to Japan to work as a magazine editor in Tokyo. What You are Looking for is in the Library was shortlisted for the Japan Booksellers' Award and became a Japanese bestseller. It is being translated into more than fifteen languages. She lives in Yokohama, Japan.
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青山 美智子 Japanese name
青山美智子 Chinese name -
Rosiee Thor
Rosiee Thor began their career as a storyteller by demanding to tell their mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. They spent their childhood reading by flashlight in the closet until they came out as queer. Now, they write stories for all ages, including young adult novels Tarnished Are The Stars and Fire Becomes Her, the picture book The Meaning of Pride, and tie-in novels for franchises like Life is Strange and Firefly. Their short fiction appears in many anthologies, including the Lambda award nominated Being Ace, and they are the editor of Why On Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology. Their debut cozy mystery, The Dead & Breakfast, is forthcoming from Berkley Press. Rosiee lives in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and an abund
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Adrianna Cuevas
Adrianna Cuevas is a first-generation Cuban-American originally from Miami, Florida. A Spanish, ESOL and TOEFL teacher, Adrianna currently resides in Austin, Texas with her husband and son. When not working with TOEFL students, wrangling multiple pets including an axolotl, and practicing fencing with her son, she is writing her next middle grade novel.
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Graci Kim
Graci Kim is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of the Gifted Clans series: The Last Fallen Star, The Last Fallen Moon, and The Last Fallen Realm. Featured in TIME Magazine for Kids, and dubbed a “sparkling yarn” by Entertainment Weekly, the Korean mythology-inspired trilogy is being translated into multiple languages.
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The Last Fallen Star was named a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Children’s Book, an Amazon Best Book, an Indigo Best Book, a Barnes & Noble Young Reader Pick, and a Whitcoulls’ Kids Top 50. In 2022, Graci was awarded the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent.
The first book in her new series, Dreamslinger (think X-Men meets Pokémon, set in a Korean magic school) will be published in April -
Zachary Sergi
Zachary Sergi is the author of several print novels (including Love And Video Games and Major Detours) and nearly a dozen interactive novels (including the Heroes Rise and Versus series). Zachary was raised in Manhattan, studied Creative Writing at Regis High School and the University of Pennsylvania, and now lives in Los Angeles with his husband, where he also writes for television. Learn more at zacharysergi.com or by following @zacharysergi on TikTok or @zacharysergiwriter on Instagram.
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Jenna Voris
Jenna Voris is the author of multiple young adult books including Every Time You Hear That Song, and Say A Little Prayer. Originally from Indiana, she now lives in northern Virginia in a 200-year-old townhouse overflowing with books and (allegedly) revolutionary war era ghosts.
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Follow her online @JennaVoris and at jennamvoris.com. -
Cayla Fay
Cayla (they/she) is a coastal New England local, D&D enthusiast, and believer in the power of black lipstick. They have a J.D from Suffolk University and B.A from Fordham University. When not writing, she spends her days walking her shih tzu, Charlie, listening to way too many podcasts, and exploring the defiantly tangled streets of Boston.
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Cayla is the author of RAVENSONG—the first in a YA contemporary fantasy duology with Northeastern Gothic vibes—out in Spring 2023 from Simon & Schuster BFYR. -
Elle Tesch
Elle Tesch has lived just east of Vancouver, British Columbia her entire life. Surrounded by forests and mountains, it was inevitable that she would daydream about what might lurk in those trees. She twists places she loves and writes what she knows best: hungry monsters, casually cruel villains, and ace-spec girls in the stories they deserve.
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When not writing, Elle can be found reading whatever she can get her hands on, wrestling with her current cross-stitch project, or re-watching Pride & Prejudice (2005) for the 72nd time. -
Meg Eden Kuyatt
Meg Eden Kuyatt is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different” (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal and Instagram at @meden_author.
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Allie Millington
Allie first wrote her debut novel, OLIVETTI, on her own antique typewriter--who turned out to have an awful lot to say. She lives with her husband, their dog Crumpet, and a collection of clacking machines. You can find her on instagram (@allieinink) or possibly in her pillow fort.
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Allie's second Middle Grade novel, ONCE FOR YES, releases with Macmillan Publishers in 2025. She has two picture books that will quickly follow, WHEN YOU FIND A HOPE and WHEN YOU FIND A QUESTION (Hachette Book Group). -
Sarah J. Mendonca
Sarah J. Mendonca is a Portuguese-American author of magical books about misfits finding their own way in the world. Raised on her father’s bedtime stories, Sarah started writing about monsters at age eight and hasn’t stopped since. You can find her haunting dark forests, lurking in bookshops, or buried underneath her enormous tea collection. An Encantadora’s Guide to Monstros and Magic is her debut novel.
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Find her on social media @sarahjmendonca -
Mara Fitzgerald
Mara Fitzgerald writes YA fantasy about unlikable female characters who ruin everything. She is a biologist by day and spends entirely too much time looking at insects under a microscope. She was born near Disney World and now lives near Graceland, which is almost as good. Her debut YA fantasy, BEYOND THE RUBY VEIL, will release on October 13th, 2020.
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Ryan James Black
Ryan James Black is a writer from Manitoba, Canada, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and curmudgeonly bulldog, Frank. A history enthusiast with a penchant for horror and the perpetual sense of humor of an eleven-year-old, Ryan writes books that attempt to combine all three: mirth, macabre, and twists of real life stranger-than-fiction history. When not writing Ryan enjoys football, scary movies, and exploring the Great Outdoors with his family.
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His debut middle grade historical fantasy, The Dark Times of Nimble Nottingham, is forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books in August, 2025. -
R.M. Romero
R. M. Romero is a Jewish Latina and author of fairy tales for children and adults. She lives in Miami Beach with her cat Henry VIII and spends her summers helping to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Poland.
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Carrie Arcos
Carrie Arcos is a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature for OUT OF REACH; her fifth novel SKYWATCHERS will be available August 2020. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. For more information, check out her website: carriearcos.com
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Claire Eliza Bartlett
Claire Bartlett lives in an enchanted forest apartment in Copenhagen with too many board games and too few cats.
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Get more detailed information, like how many board games is too many, how many cats is too few, and what book-related beauties I'm working on by signing up for my newsletter. -
Claire Winn
Claire Winn spends her time immersed in other worlds—through LARP, video games, books, nerd conventions, and her own stories. Since graduating from Northwestern University, she’s worked as a legal writer and freelance editor. Aside from writing, she builds cosplay props and armor, tears up dance floors, and battles with boffer swords.
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She is the author of the YA Requiem Dark cyberpunk series with Flux, and forthcoming adult SFF titles. -
Lindy Elkins-Tanton
Lindy Elkins-Tanton has also published under the name Linda T. Elkins-Tanton.
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Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a scientist studying the formation and evolution of rocky planets. She was born and grew up in Ithaca, New York, and now splits her time between Arizona and the quiet hills of western Massachusetts.
Elkins-Tanton is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, ASU Vice President for the Interplanetary Initiative, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company led by CEO Turner Bohlen, training and measuring problem-solving and critical thinking. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT. She was a researcher at Brown University, faculty at MIT, and a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science before moving to a direct -
Jenny Elder Moke
Jenny Elder Moke is the award-winning author of children's and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE HE DIES, a mystery rom-com mash-up, available January 20, 2026.
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Sasha Alsberg
I am the #1 NYT Bestselling author of The Androma Saga and Breaking Time Duology.
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When I am not writing, reading or being a dog mom, you can find me over at Joffe Books where I am their Social Media Manager.
Represented by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary. -
Cayla Fay
Cayla (they/she) is a coastal New England local, D&D enthusiast, and believer in the power of black lipstick. They have a J.D from Suffolk University and B.A from Fordham University. When not writing, she spends her days walking her shih tzu, Charlie, listening to way too many podcasts, and exploring the defiantly tangled streets of Boston.
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Cayla is the author of RAVENSONG—the first in a YA contemporary fantasy duology with Northeastern Gothic vibes—out in Spring 2023 from Simon & Schuster BFYR. -
Addie Thorley
Addie Thorley spent her childhood playing soccer, riding horses, and scribbling stories. After graduating from the University of Utah with a degree in journalism, she decided “hard news” didn’t contain enough magic and kissing, so she flung herself into the land of fiction and never looked back.
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She now lives in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband, daughter, and wolf dog, and when she’s not writing she can be found gallivanting in the woods or galloping around the barn where she works as a horse trainer and exercise rider.
AN AFFAIR OF POISONS is her debut novel.
You can find her online at www.addiethorley.com or on Twitter @addiethorley.