Mimi Thebo is an American of Cajun descent, now living and working in England. A lecturer at Bath Spa University, Mimi is also an author of adult books being published by Allison and Busby. Mimi and her husband have just had their first child, Libby Jo, born on March 29th 2002. They all live aboard the Crinkly Starfish, a narrow boat on the River Avon.
Dion Leonard is an Australian who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has competed in some of the world’s toughest ultra marathons across inhospitable landscapes including running across the brutal Moroccan Sahara desert twice in the 250km Marathon Des Sables and twice across South Africa’s Kalahari Desert. Dion’s latest race across the Gobi Desert in China turned out to be extraordinary. He fell in love with a stray dog that followed him during the week, changing both of their lives forever.
Jackie French was born in Sydney in 1953, grew up in Brisbane, graduated from the University of Queensland and moved to her present home in NSW bush land in her mid twenties. Over the past 10 years she has published over a hundred books on diverse subjects ranging from children’s fiction to pest control!
A longtime fantasy reader, Janice Hardy has always wondered about the darker side of healing. She tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing could be dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. She lives in Georgia with her husband, four cats, and one nervous freshwater eel.
Dean Lorey has written extensively for television and movies. Nightmare Academy is his first book for children. He hopes it will keep you up all night.
Dean lives in Calabasas, California, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their sons, Chris and Alex.
Jane Yolen has written more than two hundred books for children and adults and is the winner of many prestigious awards in the US, including the Caldecott Medal.
Louisa May Alcott was a 19th-century American novelist best known for her novel, Little Women, as well as its well-loved sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Little Women is renowned as one of the very first classics of children’s literature, and remains a popular masterpiece today.
William Butler Yeats is widely regarded as one of the finest English language poets. His eclectic output frequently draws on his chief passions for the occult and the history of his homeland. The poetry, while often mystical and romantic, can also be gritty, realistic and frequently political.
Yeats was also a major playwright and founded the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
LOIS LOWRY, author of over thirty novels and twice winner of the Newbery Medal for The Giver and Number the Stars,was born on the 20th of March 1937 in Hawaii. Her father was an Army dentist and the family lived all over the world. She went to Brown University, but left to get married and a raise a family of four children. She settled in Maine, and returned to college receiving a degree from the University of Southern Maine. She fulfilled a childhood dream when she started writing in the 1970s.
