Michelle Knudsen

Michelle (Mikki) Knudsen is a Nebula Award–winning and New York Times best-selling author of more than 50 books for children and young adults, including Library Lion (Time magazine's 100 Best Children's Books of All Time), Into the Wild Magic (Andre Norton Nebula Award), The Dragon of Trelian (VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers), and Evil Librarian (YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults; Sid Fleischman Humor Award). Her books have won numerous state, bookseller, and other awards, several are Junior Library Guild Selections, and two have recently been adapted into musical stage productions. In addition to her work for young readers, she writes occasional short speculative fiction pieces for adults. She is currently the co-chair of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association’s Middle Grade and Young Adult Steering Committee and was formerly faculty and genre chair at Lesley University’s low-residency MFA Program in Writing for Young People. Michelle lives in Brooklyn, New York.

• Picture books
• Middle grade fiction
• Young adult fiction
• Fantasy and speculative fiction

• Writing for children
• Writing for young adults
• Speculative fiction

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• Vermont College of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, 2010
• Cornell University, BA in English, 1995
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• Adjunct Faculty in Writing for Young People, Lesley University (2015-2025)
• Writing Instructor, Gotham Writers' Workshop (2010-2012)

• Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, 2025
• New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Picture Book of the Year, 2025
• Time Magazine’s 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time, 2015
• NPR's Best Books, 2015
• School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year, 2006

• Into the Wild Magic, Candlewick Press, 2025
• Luigi, the Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten (illus. Kevin Hawkes), Candlewick Press, 2024
• She Persisted: Nellie Bly, Philomel Books, 2021
• Evil Librarian, Candlewick Press, 2014
• Library Lion (illus. Kevin Hawkes), Candlewick Press, 2006