Maryrose Wood

Maryrose grew up in the wild suburbs of Long Island, moved to New York City at age 17 to study acting at New York University, then dropped out to be in the chorus of a Broadway musical — which flopped.Lean and action-packed years of acting, directing, and making drunk people laugh at comedy clubs followed. Becoming a writer seemed the only way out of this Dickensian existence.Maryrose started out writing for the theater and film, as a lyricist, librettist, playwright and screenwriter. She was the first recipient of the Georgia Bogardus Holof Lyricist Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award for New Musicals, which is administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Her first novel for young adults, SEX KITTENS AND HORN DAWGS FALL IN LOVE, was published in 2006 and hailed as “an uproariously funny debut” (Booklist), “irresistible” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and “an effervescent delight” (Common Sense Media).The Morgan Rawlinson series launched in 2007 with WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT, followed by a sequel, titled HOW I FOUND THE PERFECT DRESS. The third book about Morgan and her magical adventures is WHAT I WORE TO SAVE THE WORLD. The hilarious, romantic and magical adventures of the always irreverent Morgan have earned a devoted fan following. And so has Morgan’s freckle-faced Irish hottie, Colin! #cutefictionalboyswewishwererealMaryrose’s worlds collided neatly in MY LIFE: THE MUSICAL, a tale of two theatre-obsessed teens who go to ridiculous lengths to see their favorite Broadway show over and over again. In the kind of life-imitating-art-imitating-life twist one could only find in a musical, Maryrose had to invent a fictional Broadway show for the characters in her novel to be obsessed with.This year sees the launch of her first middle-grade series, THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE (starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus, SLJ and Publishers Weekly, Junior Library Guild selection, yesss!), and a new YA series called THE POISON DIARIES (based on a concept by the Duchess of Northumberland, and inspired by the real-life poison garden at Alnwick Castle, US pub date July 20). Both are from the Balzer + Bray imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books.Maryrose did eventually graduate from NYU’s Gallatin School. She enjoys gardening, biking, kayaking, napping, reading books and trying new vegetarian recipes. She lives in New York with her two children, two cats and a small, feisty, red-headed dog.