Growing up in rural Maine led Gillian French to believe that the mystery of the past is all around. She uses her surroundings as a setting for her dark stories that often have a creepy twist. While she's never seen a ghost, she's pretty sure she's heard ghostly footsteps in the night. Her first YA novel, Grit, (HarperCollins, 2017) won the Maine Lupine Award and Maine Literary Award and was an Edgar Award Nominee for Best YA Novel. She is also the author of The Lies They Tell (2018) and The Missing Season (coming May 2019).