Laurie Halse Anderson

Fever 1793 received two starred reviews, state and national awards, and was a Publishers Weekly Bestseller.

Laurie Halse Anderson (born Laurie Beth Halse; October 23, 1961) is an American writer, known for children's and young adult novels.

Laurie Beth Halse was born October 23, 1961, to Rev. Frank A. Halse Jr. and Joyce Holcomb Halse in Potsdam, New York.

She grew up there with her younger sister, Lisa.

As a student, she showed an early interest in writing, specifically during the second grade.

Anderson enjoyed reading—especially science fiction and fantasy—as a teenager, but never envisioned herself becoming a writer.

Anderson attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, in Manlius, New York, a suburb of Syracuse.

During Anderson's senior year, she moved out of her parents' house at the age of sixteen and lived as an exchange student for thirteen months on a pig farm in Denmark.

After her experience in Denmark, Anderson moved back home to work at a clothing store, earning the minimum wage.

This motivated her to attend college.

Laurie Halse Anderson married Greg Anderson.

In 1985, they had their first child, Stephanie Holcomb.

Two years later, they had their second child, Meredith Lauren.

The couple later divorced.

Years later, Anderson moved back to Mexico, New York.

She married Scot Larrabee.

They combined their families — Anderson's two daughters and Larrabee's two children, Jessica and Christian.

Anderson began her career as a freelance journalist and worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer in the early years of her career.

During this time, Anderson also began to write children's and young adult novels.

Despite receiving rejection letters, Anderson released her first children's novel, Ndito Runs, in 1996, based on Kenyan Olympic marathon runners who ran to and from school each day.

Later that year, she had her story Turkey Pox published.

This story was inspired by her daughter, Meredith, who broke out with chickenpox on Thanksgiving.

In 1998, Anderson published No Time For Mother's Day, featuring the same characters.

During her early career, Anderson wrote several pieces of non-fiction.

The first was a children's book featuring Saudi Arabia.

She co-authored a book about parenting shy children with Dr. Ward Swallow.

She was first recognized for her novel Speak, published in 1999.

In 1999, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Anderson's best-known novel to date, Speak.

In 2000, Anderson's Fever 1793, a historical fiction novel set in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic, was published by Simon and Schuster.

The paperback version was published in 2001 by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing.

Speak has been translated into 16 languages.

In 2002, after the publication of Fever 1793, Catalyst was published by Penguin under the Viking imprint.

The action takes place in the same high school as Speak and features cameo appearances by some of its characters.

The book became a Barnes & Noble Best Teen Book of 2002 and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.

Anderson's fiction picture book, ''Thank You, Sarah!

It was a New York Times Bestseller and was adapted into film in 2004, starring Kristen Stewart as Melinda Sordino.

The novel became a finalist for the National Book Award and won Anderson honors for its portrayal of a thirteen-year-old girl who becomes mute after a sexual assault.

She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for her contribution to young adult literature and 2023 she received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

In 2018, Anderson revealed that she was raped when she was thirteen years old, and the novel was based on her experience.

Anderson later wrote a memoir, Shout, about her life when she was a teenager, including details of her rape and the trauma she faced afterward.