Biography

I am the author of short stories, books, and novels for children, teenagers, and adults. I have won the LA Times Book Award and been awarded both a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor and a Newbery Honor. I won a Mythopoeic Award, was shortlisted twice for the Andre Norton Award, and spent one glorious week on the New York Times bestseller list.

I have never won a Guggenheim, but I am deeply (deeply!) indebted to the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. They made my husband, Mark Turner, a Guggeneheim fellow and while he was on sabbatical, I also had a year off to write my first book, a collection of short stories called Instead of Three Wishes.

I don’t like to post a lot of information about myself, and I’d rather that you didn't either, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask me. My e-mail address is under Contact. If you want me to explain something in the books, I have to apologize for being the most uncooperative author ever. As much as I love hearing from my readers, and I really do love it, I never want to say something that will interfere with their chance to decide for themselves what to make of my books. It means that I answer, "not telling" to a lot of questions. Sorry.

I'm happy to sign books if you buy them from a bookseller near me. I'll drop by and sign them and some reliable person at the store can mail them to you. I like to leave a trail of signed books wherever I go, so there might already be one near you. I live in Ohio, mostly, with extended trips to San Diego; Oslo, Norway; and Lower Saxony.

My local bookstores right now are Loganberry Books in Cleveland and MacsBacks in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.