BIO

Donna Jo Napoli is a highly acclaimed author of both novels and picture books. Her many award-winning titles include STONES IN WATER, winner of a Golden Kite Award and the Sydney Taylor Book Award; Zel, which was named a Best Book by Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal; SIRENA, an ALA Best Book; BEAST, a School Library Journal Best Book; and, recently, THE GREAT GOD PAN. After writing NORTH, she discovered that a good friend of hers actually owns Matthew Henson's snowshoes.

Donna Jo Napoli earned both her B.A. in mathematics and her Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures from Harvard University. She is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, where among her courses she teaches workshops in writing fiction and poetry. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.