Frances O'Roark Dowell is the editor and copublisher of Dream/Girl, a critically acclaimed arts magazine for girls. She received her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts, and has published poems in such literary journals as Poetry East, Shenandoah, and the New Delta Review. She has worked as a paralegal, a college English instructor, and an arts administrator. She lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, with her husband and son.

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I’d Like to Be; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; The Second Life of Abigail Walker, which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; The Class; How to Build a Story; and most recently, Hazard. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.