Joyce McDonald earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from Drew University. She is the author of many outstanding novels for teens, including Swallowing Stones, an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults; Shadow People, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; and Shades of Simon Gray, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Joyce McDonald lives in a quiet rural town in northwestern New Jersey with her husband and their cats. While she’s never actually read poems in cemeteries, she does share Dove’s passion for poetry.