Koja, Kathe

My biography doesn't take very long to tell. I was born in Detroit, second of two sisters, and grew up in an east-side suburb. I've been writing since I was a very young girl -- it's not just what I do, it's who I am, the way I see the world, and the way I try to make sense of what I see.

Writing "straydog", my first book for young people, ushered me into a world I knew already as a reader. Many of the characters I love best in fiction Louise Fitzhugh s Harriet, J. D. Salinger s Holden and Franny and Zooey, Francesca Lia Block s Witch Baby are people who struggle with hard ideas, say what t...