Longer version:

Award winning author Claribel Ortega went from journalism student, editing her classmates often times hilarious ads and ramblings on the back page of SUNY Purchase’s Independent Newspaper, to a small town reporter, where she enjoyed going to board of ed meetings and texting the town mayors about the line at Starbucks.

About

Today she’s busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic and video games into books, she's co-hosting the hilarious and chaotic Bad Author Book Club podcast or helping authors navigate publishing with her consulting business GIFGRRL. She is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America and Deadline.

She lives in New York with her motorcycle-riding poet boyfriend & her suspiciously intelligent yorkie, Pancho Villa.

Claribel’s debut middle grade novel GHOST SQUAD is out now from Scholastic and is being made Into a feature film. Ghost Squad won Best in Middle Grade at the 2021 Ignyte Awards, was a Goodreads Choice Award finalist, and an International Latino book awards honorary mention for 2020. Ghost Squad was also the Barnes & Noble Young Reader Pick for October 2021.

Her forthcoming books include Witchlings (Scholastic) and the graphic novel Frizzy (First Second.)

Shorter version:

Award winning author, CLARIBEL A. ORTEGA is a former reporter who writes middle-grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she's not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she’s co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club and helping authors navigate publishing with her consulting business GIFGRRL. Claribel is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America and Deadline.

Claribel’s debut middle grade novel GHOST SQUAD is out now from Scholastic and is being made into a feature film. Her forthcoming books include Witchlings (Scholastic) and the graphic novel Frizzy (First Second.) You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok @Claribel_Ortega and on her website at claribelortega.com.