The Authors and Illustrators - Profiles
Holly Black
Holly Black was born in a decrepit Victorian house in New Jersey. Her mother, a painter and doll-maker, fed her books on ghosts and faeries that formed much of her later views on the world. She also developed a fear of the dark. Nonetheless, Holly spent a happy childhood cooking up imaginary witches brews with her younger sister, Heidi, and tending to the needs of her pet rats.
Adolescence brought Dungeons & Dragons, punk rock, boys, and an unhealthy habit of reading book until 3 a.m. During this period, Holly wrote a lot of poetry, a play, and a very bad novel, entitled Knights of the Silver Sun. She also met Theo Black, a painter who was attending private school. They moved to Philadelphia together to attend college.
After graduating, Holly got a job in New York while working at night on an independent gaming magazine, d8. It was through d8 magazine that she met Tony DiTerlizzi. It was also during this period that she began her suburban fantasy novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Tithe was published in October of 2002 and received starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Booklist called Tithe "dark, edgy, beautifully written, and compulsively readable." A finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, Tithe was one of the ALA's Best Books for Young Adults and the New York Public Library's "Best 2002 Books for the Teenage."
In Summer 2003, Holly and Tony collaborated on the New York Times bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles. This five-book series has been called "vintage Victorian fantasy" by the New York Post and Time Magazine reported that "the books wallow in their dusty Olde Worlde charm." Also receiving starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus, the Spiderwick Chronicles have been translated into 27 languages worldwide.
Currently, she is working on a follow-up to Tithe, entitled Valiant, which is due out in Summer of 2005.
Today Holly lives at the bottom of a dead-end street with Theo, who she married in 1999. She is an avid collector of rare folklore volumes, spooky dolls, and crazy hats.
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