Holly Black


Holly Black née Riggenbach is an American writer and editor best known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and a trilogy of Young Adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales trilogy. Her 2013 novel Doll Bones was named a Newbery Medal honor book.

Early life and education

Black was born in West Long Branch, New Jersey in 1971, and during her early years her family lived in a "decrepit Victorian house."
Black graduated with a B.A. in English from The College of New Jersey in 1994. She worked as a production editor on medical journals including The Journal of Pain while studying at Rutgers University. She considered becoming a librarian as a backup career, but writing drew her away. She edited and contributed to the role-playing culture magazine d8 in 1996.
In 1999 she married her high school sweetheart, Theo Black, an illustrator and web designer. In 2008 she was described as residing in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Literary career

Black's first novel, ', was published by Simon & Schuster in 2002. There have been two sequels set in the same universe. The first, ', won the inaugural Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. By vote of Locus readers for the Locus Awards, Valiant and Ironside ranked fourth and sixth among the year's young-adult books.
In 2003, Black published the first two books of The Spiderwick Chronicles, a collaboration with artist Tony DiTerlizzi. The fifth and last book in the series reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller list in 2004. A film adaptation of the series was released in 2008.
White Cat, the first in her Curse Workers Series, was published in 2010. White Cat was followed by Red Glove and the trilogy concluded with Black Heart in 2012. A standalone novel, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, was released by Little, Brown in September 2013. Black published a short story of the same name in the vampire anthology The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire. Doll Bones was published in May 2013, and was awarded a Newbery Honor and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.
In 2012, Scholastic acquired a five-book series written by Black and Cassandra Clare to be called Magisterium. Its first volume, The Iron Trial, was published on September 9, 2014.
Black has also written dozens of short works and co-edited at least three anthologies of speculative fiction.

Adaptations

Black is co-executive producer of the film adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles, released in February 2008. The film covers the entirety of the novel series. The Spiderwick Chronicles has also been released as a video game from Stormfront Studios.
In 2011, Black stated that the Curse Workers books had been optioned by Vertigo Pictures and producer Mark Morgan.

Works

Young adult novels

;Modern Faerie Tales
;The Curse Workers
;Folk of the Air
;Standalone
;Spiderwick, Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
;Magisterium, Black and Cassandra Clare, illustrator Scott Fischer
;Standalone
;The Good Neighbors, illus. Ted Naifeh
;Lucifer
;Collections
;Short stories