Libba Bray is the award-winning author of best-selling books for young adults, including the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing), Going Bovine, Beauty Queens, and The Diviners series.
Bray was born in Alabama and grew up in Corpus Christi and then Denton, Texas. She is the daughter of a minister and high school English teacher – and part of a family of storytellers. Three weeks after high school graduation, Bray had a serious car accident. She demolished her face and lost her left eye. Of that experience, she says
“It took many years to put me back together again … and that’s when I discovered how powerful writing can be, because writing everything down kept me alive. Should you ever find yourself in a bad, hopeless place, please know that you can write your way out of something that feels completely unwinnable and into something better and, just possibly, into something wonderful.”
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Bray moved to New York City and jumped into the world of publishing and advertising. She wrote a number of plays; three of them got produced. Her first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, was published in 2003 and she has been writing YA books ever since. Bray makes her home in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, son, and two charming cats, Little Squeak and Cocoa.
Books by this author
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Beauty Queens
Going Bovine
Lair of Dreams
