Brief professional bio:

Jasmine Warga is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of middle grade novels Other Words For Home, The Shape of Thunder, A Rover’s Story, and A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall. Her books have won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor, been named to many state award reading lists, and listed as best books of the year by publications such as NPR, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and others. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family in a house filled with books.

Longer + informal bio:

I was born on April 24, 1988 at 11:59 PM in Cincinnati, Ohio. This means that I am a Taurus if you are into astrology and star stuff, which I most definitely am. Also, like all other people from Cincinnati, I am inordinately proud of my little Midwestern city and think that Graeter’s black raspberry chip ice cream is the most delicious food in the whole world. (I’m really into a baby hippo named Fiona, too. She makes her home at the Cincinnati Zoo.)

Growing up, I loved to read. When I was younger, I read about every book I could get my hands on. Some of my favorites were Charlotte’s Web, The Witches, and Anne of Green Gables. I read The Bridge to Terabithia when I was in fourth grade, and it is the first book I remember reading by myself that made me cry. In middle school, we read books by Sharon Draper and Margaret Peterson Haddix, and I fell in love with their stories. I wanted to live in the world of Ella Enchanted, and I couldn’t stop thinking about The Giver. In high school, I was introduced to the work of Virginia Woolf and my brain exploded. I also fell hard and fast for the poetry of Adrienne Rich and Anne Sexton. In college, I discovered Zadie Smith and Sandra Cisneros and reading their brilliant writing made my own desire to tell stories feel possible in a way it hadn’t before.

I went to college with the intention of getting a degree in something “practical” (because I wanted to make my parents happy), but I ended up graduating with a degree in Art History and History (which if you really think about it was just a roundabout way for me to study the structure of story and how stories are told.) After graduation, I found a job teaching 6th grade science (I know, right?) to a bunch of smart and challenging students in Texas. While teaching, I started to try my hand at writing my own stories. Lots of false starts and messy drafts later, here we are. I feel extremely lucky as all I’ve ever wanted to do is tell stories.

These days, I live in the Chicago area with my family in a house full of books. My current favorite things are neighborhood walks, buttery popcorn, early morning sunlight, and flowering trees.