Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld is me. I’m the author of thirty novels. Five are for adults, and the other twenty-five for young adults. I’m best known for the Uglies quartet, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory at age sixteen. I’m also known for the Leviathan trilogy, a steampunk retelling of World War I, illustrated by Keith Thompson and featuring adventure, walking machines, and living airships My other works include the Zeroes trilogy, written with Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti, about six teens with strange powers in a small city in California, and the Midnighters trilogy, about five teenagers for whom time freezes every night. My standalone works include four novels set in contemporary New York: So Yesterday, Peeps, The Last Days, and Afterworlds. My books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. I have contributed nonfiction to Nerve, BookForum, the scientific journal Nature. I’ve also been an occasional ghost writer, which is like driving someone else’s car really, really fast for lots of money. (I could tell you what famous authors I ghost-wrote for, but then I’d have to kill you.) In my artsy days, I wrote music for artsy downtown New York dancers, some of which can be found at the bottom of my video page. My greatest accomplishment is, of course, my three Powerpuff Girl choose-your-own-adventure books. Outside the writing world, I’ve held such jobs as factory worker (making lead soldiers), substitute teacher, textbook editor, and software designer. I was born in Texas, grew up on all three coasts of the US, and went to Vassar. I married writer Justine Larbalestier in 2001, and we split our time between New York City and Sydney, Australia. (Website: scottwesterfeld.com)