Shannon Hale

Hale was born in Salt Lake City to Wallace and Bonnie Bryner.[2] She is the middle child of five children. She enjoyed writing, reading, and acting as a young girl; she often created plays which she would act out with friends. She also began to write fantasy books at age 10, often featuring herself as the protagonist.[3] In the fourth grade, Hale announced that she wanted to be a writer as an adult. In junior high, Hale participated on the school literary magazine. Author Dean Hughes visited her English class. She attended West High School, where she cultivated passions for English and drama. She participated in both school and community theater productions, including The Secret Garden. Hale also took part in drama competitions and traveled throughout Utah and the U.S. with an improvisational theater group whose productions highlighted a range of teen issues. She met her spouse, Dean Hale, during high school; he was also involved in theater.[1]

She attended the University of Utah, primarily majoring in both English and Theater before deciding solely to pursue the former. She served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paraguay for 18 months[1] before graduating with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1998.[4] and a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.[5]

Before becoming a full-time author, Hale participated in stage and improvisational comedy, studied in Mexico and the United Kingdom,[3] and worked as an instructional designer. She began writing The Goose Girl while in her graduate writing program, and worked on her drafts during her lunch break.[1] She originally planned to work in literary fiction, publishing short stories and teaching English, before writing young adult and children's books.[6]

The Goose Girl became her first published novel after being met with nine rejections;[7] Hale received an offer in 2003 from Bloomsbury Publishing.[8] Hale based the book on her favorite fairy tale of the same name.[9] It was named an ALA Teens' Top Ten[5] and became the first of many novels in Hale's Books of Bayern series.[10] Goose Girl also won the 2004 Josette Frank Award for fiction[11] and was reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2017.[12] Her novel Princess Academy was featured on The New York Times Best Seller list, as well as that of Book Sense and Publishers Weekly. It also received a Newbery Honor.[3] Her first adult novel, Austenland, was also featured by Book Sense.[5] Hale and screenwriter Jerusha Hess then wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of Austenland, released in 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was then bought by Sony Pictures for $4 million.[13] Twilight author Stephenie Meyer produced the film and Keri Russell starred as protagonist Jane Hayes.[14] In 2012 Hale released a sequel novel, Midnight in Austenland.[15] Another adult novel, The Actor and the Housewife, was published in 2009[16] and was named "the City Weekly readers' choice winner for best novel of the year."[10] Hale has kept numerous rejection letters she has received from publishers, and has compiled them into one 60 foot long scroll.[3][9]

In 2017, Hale released a graphic memoir entitled Real Friends, chronicling her struggles in grade school. It was illustrated by LeUyen Pham.[17] Its sequel, Best Friends, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for graphic books and manga in April 2020.[18] In 2018, her Princess in Black series - which she wrote with her husband Dean Hale - made The New York Times Best Seller list for children's series.[19] The two also co-wrote the graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge,[6] as well as two young adult novels for the Marvel superheroes Squirrel Girl and Captain Marvel.[20] Hale ventured further into science fiction with her own YA superhero novel, Dangerous, in 2014.[21]

In addition to being an author, Hale is also an advocate for gender equality; she has noticed how her books are marketed only to girls, despite positive reception from both genders.[22] She has gone on to write a few articles about this subject.[23]

Hale with husband Dean at the 2016 Texas Book Festival

Hale is married to Dean C. Hale, with whom she has co-authored the Eisner-nominee graphic novels Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack, as well as The Princess in Black series and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series.[24][10] She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[25] and is the mother of 4 children: Max, Magnolia,[5] and twin girls Dinah and Wren.[1]

The Books of Bayern series

• The Goose Girl (2003), ISBN 1-58234-843-X
• Enna Burning (2004), ISBN 1-58234-889-8
• River Secrets (2006), ISBN 1-58234-901-0
• Forest Born (2009), ISBN 1-59990-167-6

Princess Academy series

• Princess Academy (2005), ISBN 1-58234-993-2 - Adapted to a musical produced by Kensington Theatre in December 2016[26]
• Princess Academy: Palace of Stone (2012), ISBN 1-59990-873-5
• Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters (2015), ISBN 978-1-61963-485-5

Austenland series

• Austenland (2007), ISBN 1-59691-285-5 - premiered as a movie in January 2013
• Midnight in Austenland (2012), ISBN 1-60819-625-9

Rapunzel's Revenge series
Co-authored with Dean Hale and illustrated by Nathan Hale

• Rapunzel's Revenge (2008), ISBN 1-59990-288-5
• Calamity Jack (2010), ISBN 978-1-59990-076-6

Ever After High series

• Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends (2013), ISBN 0-31640-122-6
• Ever After High: The Unfairest of Them All (2014), ISBN 0-31628-201-4
• Ever After High: A Wonderlandiful World (2014), ISBN 0-31628-209-X
• Once Upon a Time: A Story Collection (2014), ISBN 0-31625-821-0
• The Legend of Shadow High: Ever After High meets Monster High (2017)

Princess in Black series
Co-authored with Dean Hale, and illustrated by LeUyen Pham

• The Princess in Black (2014), ISBN 978-0-7636-6510-4
• The Perfect Princess Party (2015), ISBN 978-0-7636-6511-1
• The Hungry Bunny Horde (2016), ISBN 978-0-7636-6513-5
• Takes a Vacation (2016), ISBN 978-0-7636-6512-8
• The Mysterious Playdate (2017), ISBN 978-0-7636-8826-4
• The Science Fair Scare (2018), ISBN 978-0-7636-8827-1

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series
Co-authored with Dean Hale

• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World (2017) ISBN 978-1484781548
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious (2018) ISBN 978-1368011266

Real Friends series

Graphic memoirs illustrated by LeUyen Pham

• Real Friends (2017) ISBN 9781626724167
• Best Friends (2019) ISBN 9781250317452

Standalone novels

• Book of a Thousand Days (2007), ISBN 1-59990-051-3
• The Actor and the Housewife (2009), ISBN 1-59691-288-X
• Dangerous (2014), ISBN 1-59990-168-4
• Kind of a Big Deal (2020), ISBN 9781250206237

Diana: Princess of the Amazons series

Co-authored with Dean Hale and illustrated by Victoria Ying

• Diana: Princess of the Amazons (2020) ISBN 9781401291112

• 2004 Josette Frank Award, Goose Girl[11]
• 2004 AML Award in Young Adult Literature for Enna Burning[27]
• 2005 AML Award in Young Adult Literature for Princess Academy[27]
• 2006 Newbery Honor, Princess Academy[28]
• 2007 Whitney Award, Book of a Thousand Days[29]
• 2007 Cybils Award for Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction, Book of a Thousand Days[30]
• 2017 AML Award in Comics for Real Friends with LeUyen Pham[31]

• Official website
• Little Red Reading Hood (fan site)
• Interview by Miss Erin
• Interview by Chris Rettstatt
• Q&A with Shannon Hale interview at Publishers Weekly
• Shannon Hale at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Shannon Hale at Library of Congress Authorities, with 21 catalog records