True Heroes : A Treasury of Modern-Day Fairy Tales Written by Bestselling Authors

Shannon Hale is the author of multiple award-winning young adult novels, including Austenland and the New York Times bestselling Princess Academy, which is also a Newbery Honor book. Her first book, The Goose Girl, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults and won the Josette Frank Award. In addition to her successful young adult novels, she cowrote two graphic novels with her husband, Rapunzel’s Revenge and Calamity Jack. She received a degree in English from the University of Utah and a master’s in creative writing from the University of Montana.

Brandon Mull is the author of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling Beyonders and Fablehaven series, which have developed large followings. He resides in Utah with his wife and children.

Ally Condie is the author of the Matched trilogy, a #1 New York Times and international bestseller. Matched was chosen as one of YALSA’s 2011 Teens’ Top Ten as well as one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of 2010. She is a former high school English teacher who lives with her family outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bobbie Pyron has worked in libraries and bookstores in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah and has been active in local animal rescue work for many years. She’s the author of A Pup Called Trouble, A Dog’s Way Home, and Stay. Bobbie lives in Ashville, NC, with her husband, Todd, and their dog, Sherlock.

Peggy Eddleman writes adventure books for middle grade readers. Besides writing, Peggy enjoys playing laser tag with her husband and their three kids, doing cartwheels in long hallways, trying new restaurants, and occasionally painting murals on walls.

J. Scott Savage is the author of middle-grade fantasy novels, including the Farworld, Case File 13, Mysteries of Cove, and the Lost Wonderland series. He has published more than seventeen novels, visited more than 1,400 schools, and taught dozens of writing classes.

Chad Morris grew up wanting to become a professional basketball player or a rock star. Neither of those plans quite panned out, so he wrote and performed sketch comedy while going to college. Now he is a teacher and a writer.

Frank L. Cole is the author of several books and an active promoter of reading and using your imagination. His philosophy is, “With a good imagination you can solve any problem you ever come up against in life!” Cole lives with his wife and three children out West, and when he’s not writing books, he enjoys going to the movies and traveling.

Linda Gerber recently returned to life in the Midwest after four years in Japan, where she served as the Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She currently lives and writes in Dublin, OH, blissfully ignoring her husband, four kids, and one very naughty puppy.

Tyler Whitesides has always loved telling stories. Growing up, he was even willing to do extra housework if his mom let him type his stories on the computer. He has worked as a music teacher, taste tester, and janitor. He lives in Logan, Utah, with his wife Connie, who is a schoolteacher.

Jennifer A. Nielsen is the acclaimed author of the USA Today bestselling Ascendance Series, as well as the bestselling Mark of the Thief trilogy, a stand-alone fantasy The Scourge, historical thrillers, and contributions to the Horizon series, the Infinity Ring series, and The Traitor’s Game series.

Sara B. Larson is the best-selling and critically acclaimed author of the YA fantasy Defy trilogy and the Dark Breaks the Dawn duology. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t write books―although she now uses a computer instead of a Little Mermaid notebook. Sara lives in Utah with her husband, their four children, and their Maltese, Loki. She writes in brief snippets throughout the day and the quiet hours when most people are sleeping. Her husband claims she should have a degree in “the art of multitasking.” When she’s not mothering or writing, you can often find her at the gym repenting for her sugar addiction.

Kristyn Crow was born in Southern California, the eldest of seven children. She is the author of Skeleton Cat, Bedtime in the Swamp, and the Zombelina series.

Liesl Shurtliff is the author of Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin. A graduate of Brigham Young University, she now lives in Chicago with her husband and children.

Ilima Todd was born and raised on the north shore of Oahu and dives for octopus with her dad every time she visits—otherwise she’s diving into books in the Rocky Mountains where she lives with her husband and four children. She graduated from BYU with a degree in physics and eats copious amounts of raw fish and avocados without regret. But mostly she loves being a wife and mama and wouldn’t trade that job for anything in the world.

Clint Johnson has written a number of books on the Civil War, including the acclaimed Civil War Blunders. Originally from Florida, he counts Confederate soldiers from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama among his ancestors. He is active as a Civil War reenactor and has portrayed soldiers from both the South and the Union. A graduate of the University of Florida, Johnson lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife, Barbara.

Jonathan Diaz is an attorney by day and a photographer by night. When he isn’t taking photographs of mermaids, dragon riders, and fairies, he enjoys spending time with his wife and family.

R. C. Bray is an award-winning audiobook narrator with over 180 titles to his credit. Besides winning five AudioFile Earphones Awards, he won the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Science Fiction Narration and has been an Audie Award finalist seven times. He has been a finalist for the Voice Arts Award, and in 2014, his narration earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an accomplished producer and voice-over artist, and his voice can be heard in countless TV and radio commercials.

Kirsten Potter has won several awards, including more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a three-time finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. Her work has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and by AudioFile magazine, among many others. She graduated with highest honors from Boston University and has performed on stage and in film and television, including roles on Medium, Bones, and Judging Amy.

Kirby Heyborne is a musician, actor, and professional narrator. Noted for his work in teen and juvenile audio, he has garnered over twenty Earphones Awards. His audiobook credits include Jesse Kellerman’s The Genius, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, and George R. R. Martin’s Selections from Dreamsongs.

Emily Woo Zeller is an artist, actor, dancer, choreographer, and voice artist who has won Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration in 2018. She began her voice-over career by voicing animation in Asia. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013 for her work in Gulp. Other awards include the 2009 Tristen Award for Best Actress as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and the 2006 Roselyn E. Schneider Prize for Creative Achievement.

Elijah Alexander has worked professionally as an actor for over fifteen years. He has worked and lived in New York, where he performed in numerous productions, including the Tony Award–winning play Metamorphoses. He worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for two years and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for two seasons, as well as regionally at various other theaters. In Los Angeles, he has worked on critically acclaimed productions of Sleuth, produced by Garry Marshall, and other works. His film and television credits include Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, JAG, Summerland, So NoTORIous, and Guiding Light. He was the voice of Vayne Solidor in Final Fantasy XII and has done several commercial voiceovers. He is currently the voice of Kenmore and has narrated more than ten audiobooks, including James Jones’ acclaimed novel From Here to Eternity.

Derek Perkins is a professional narrator and voice actor. He has earned numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, as well as numerous Society of Voice Arts nominations. AudioFile magazine named him a Best Voice consecutively in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents, he has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres.

Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.

Caitlin Davies is a New York City–based actor and audiobook narrator who studied acting at the Eugene O’Neill National Institute, the British American Drama Academy, and the Barrow Group. She specializes in audiobooks for teens and young adults.

Andrew Eiden, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor and voice artist. He has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters including La Mirada Theatre, the Glendale Center Theatre, and the Pasadena Playhouse. He has starred in dozens of national commercials, guest-spotted on numerous television shows, and has been a series regular on three programs: Discovery Channel’s Outward Bound, Disney Channel’s Movie Surfers, and most notably ABC’s Complete Savages

Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced voice-over actress and Earphones Award–winning narrator. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, her voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials.