Carla Jablonski is the author and editor of dozens of best-selling books for teenage and middle-grade readers. She grew up in New York City, where she attended public schools and the Bronx High School of Science. She has a BA in anthropology from Vassar College and an MA from NYUs Gallatin School, an interdisciplinary program for which she combined playwriting, the history of gender issues in 19th Century Circus, and arts administration. I wanted to write the play, contextualize the play, and learn how to produce the play for my degree, she explains. I think I may have been the happiest graduate student at NYU -- I SO loved working toward my thesis.

While still in graduate school she supported herself as the editor of The Hardy Boys Mysteries. When I interviewed for the job they asked me if Id ever read the Hardy Boys as a kid. No way, I scoffed. Those are BOY books! It was Nancy Drew for me! Luckily my future boss had a sense of humor. She hired me after I promised Id read the books if I got the job.

She has participated in the renowned Breadloaf Writers Conference as well as Zoetropes All-Story highly competitive writing workshop held at Francis Ford Coppellas resort in Belize. She has taught writing for the childrens market, as well as cold-reading skills for teachers as part of Project:Read. Several of her books have been selected as part of the Accelerated Readers program.

She continues to work freelance as an editor for publishers and for private clients, even as she writes novels and creates new series. She also has another career (and identity!) as a playwright, an actress, and a trapeze performer. I try to keep the worlds separate, she explains about her multiple identities. The different work I do has different audiences, so I want to keep them apart. But theyre all me -- theyre all ways of expressing what Im thinking and feeling -- just in different mediums.Read Less