Alison McGhee

Alison McGhee was born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, McGhee currently lives in Minnesota. Alison has published dozens of short stories, poems, essays, and book reviews. Her first children’s books an dyoung adult novels include Countdown to Kindergarten, Snap, Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth, and Some Witches Like Sprinkles.

Alison McGhee teaches creative writing at Metropolitan State University, where she is the coordinator of the creative writing program and in Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

Alison McGhee’s first novel, Rainlight, won the GLCA National Fiction Award, the 1999 Minnesota Book Award, was listed by Library Journal as one of the best first novels of 1998, and was a Borders Original Voices pick in both hardcover and paperback.

Her second novel, Shadow Baby, won the 2001 Minnesota Book Award, was listed by Kirkus Reviews as one of the eight best novels of 2000, was a Borders Original Voices pick in both hardcover and paperback, a Booksense 76 pick, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Literature, and was the August 2003 Today Show Book Club Pick #14. Her third novel, Was It Beautiful? was published in February 2003.