About The Author
LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON
Laurie Halse Anderson was born in upstate New York. Her maiden name, Halse, is often mispronounced; it rhymes with waltz.
Laurie was turned on to writing in the second grade during a haiku lesson. She read all the time,enjoying historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy more than any other genres. She also had an interest in foreign cultures and languages. In high school, Laurie moved out of her parent’s house and lived on a pig farm in Denmark where she was an exchange student.
After her high school graduation, Laurie worked for minimum wage in a clothing store, where she quickly discovered she needed to go college. She attended Onondaga Community College for two years, working on a dairy farm milking cows during that time. She later transferred to Georgetown University and graduated with a degree in Languages and Linguistics. Laurie got married after graduating from college; she and her husband then had two daughters.
Laurie never thought of writing as a career, but later became a freelance reporter. Though she was sent several rejection letters, she eventually published some nonfiction and children’s storybooks. In 1999, Laurie published Speak, which won several awards. She then published Fever 1793, several books that are part of the Wild at Heart series, Prom, Catalyst, a companion novel to Speak, and Twisted, which was published in 2007.
Recently, Laurie and her husband divorced; she is now remarried and part of a great extended family.
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