New York Times Bestselling and 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.

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Today when she’s not 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. She 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 a New York Times Bestseller and is being made into a feature film. Ghost Squad won Best in Middle Grade at the 2021 Ignyte Awards, was an NPR Best Book of 2020, a Good Morning America Summer Reading Squad selection and a Barnes & Noble Young Reader Pick for October 2021.

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Her latest book Witchlings (Scholastic) was an Instant NYT and #1 Indie Bestseller. Her graphic novel Frizzy with Rose Bousamra was winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children's Text and an Indie Bestseller. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok @Claribel_Ortega, on Twitch as Radbunnie and on her website at claribelortega.com.

 

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