Sign up for our newsletters to get the best new books right in your inbox.

Shannon Hale Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author

Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale

How to pronounce Shannon Hale: shan-non hale (rhymes with rail)

Shannon Hale Biography

New York Times best selling author Shannon Hale started writing books at age ten and never stopped, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing. After nineteen years of writing and dozens of rejections, she published The Goose Girl, the first book in her award-winning Books of Bayern series. She has two standalone books for young readers - Book of a Thousand Days, a Cybils award winner; and Princess Academy, a Newbery Honor Book. Her books for the adult crowd are Austenland (soon to be a major motion picture), Midnight in Austenland, and The Actor and the Housewife. With her husband Dean, Shannon wrote two graphic novels: Rapunzel's Revenge, winner of the Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award; and its acclaimed sequel, Calamity Jack. Shannon's next book is the Princess Academy sequel, Palace of Stone, in bookstores August 2012. She spends her days as a full-time mom to four young children near Salt Lake City, Utah.

Shannon Hale's website

This bio was last updated on 12/11/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

An interview with Shannon Hale, author of Princess Academy, The Goose Girl, and other books for young readers.

This is a transcription from TheAuthorHour radio show. For additional questions not asked during the live show, visit TheAuthorHour

Matthew: My guest today is Shannon Hale, New York Times bestselling author of Princess Academy, which received the Newbery Honor. She's also written the Bayern series, starting with The Goose Girl, which received the Josette Frank Award and made the American Library Association Top Ten Books for Young Adults list. Thanks for being on the show today, Shannon.

Shannon: Well, thank you.

Matthew: Let's first talk about Princess Academy. Congratulations on getting the Newbery Honor award, by the way.

Shannon: Thanks, that just never gets old. No matter who I explain it too. It's the gift that keeps on giving, that's for sure.

Matthew: I know! I'm sure it's just one of those things you are just ecstatic about.

Shannon: Yeah, it still doesn't feel real, honestly, three and a half years later.

Matthew: Well, tell us a little bit about Princess Academy.

Shannon: Princess Academy is a story about a girl who lives in a very small village on top of a mountain. It's a fantasy book, so it's a sort of a long ago, far away, type of setting. They get word that one of the...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Shannon Hale at BookBrowse
Dangerous jacket Palace of Stone jacket Book of a Thousand Days jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Dream Count
    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    A searing new novel from the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, exploring four women's desires.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Raising Hare
    by Chloe Dalton

    A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.

  • Book Jacket

    The Dream Hotel
    by Laila Lalami

    A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

  • Book Jacket

    Fagin the Thief
    by Allison Epstein

    A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London's most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.

Who Said...

When I get a little money I buy books...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

S O, S N, S B, S B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.