Holland Patent High School, New YorkMiddlebury College, Vermont

Alison McGhee is an eclectic writer who had published works for all ages, in many forms. Her first novel, Rainlight, is a heartrending story which follows the characters left behind after the sudden and accidental death of Starr Williams. It received positive reviews and won both the Great Lakes College Association National Fiction Award and the Minnesota Book Award in 1999. McGhee's sophomore effort, Shadow Baby, is witnessed through the eyes of a young girl who befriends an old man as part of a school project. Clara Winter and Georg Kominsky are strong characters who find in each other light in a dark world. It was a Pulitzer Prize nominee. McGhee continued her adult themes with 'Was It Beautiful?.

She then began writing children's pictures. Countdown to Kindergarten and Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth, both share the same main character who begins the first story as she enters kindergarten and is in first grade by the second book.

Turning her hand to young adult novels, McGhee introduced Snap and All Rivers Flow to the Sea.

In Only a Witch Can Fly McGhee focuses on poetry. In this story-poem, created in sestina form, a little girl dreams about flying on her broom.Downes, Lawrence. "Once Upon a Broomstick." The New York Times Book Review. (11 Oct. 2009): Book Review Desk: p12(L). Literature Resource Center. Gale. Hennepin County Library. 4 Jan. 2010 .

In addition to being an award winning author, McGhee is a professor of creative writing at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

McGhee is married with three children.

Novels

• 1998 - Rainlight
• 2000 - Shadow Baby
• 2003 - Was It Beautiful?
• 2007 - Falling Boy

Young Adult Novels

• 2004 - Snap
• 2005 - All Rivers Flow to the Sea

Children's Chapter Books

• 2008 - Julia Gillian and the Art Of Knowing - Illustrated by Drazen Kozjan
• 2009 - Julia Gillian and the Quest for Joy - Illustrated by Drazen Kozjan

Picture Books

• 2002 - Countdown to Kindergarten - Illustrated by Harry Bliss
• 2004 - Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth - Illustrated by Harry Bliss
• 2006 - A Very Brave Witch - Illustrated by Harry Bliss
• 2007 - Someday - Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
• 2008 - Bye-bye, Crib - Illustrated by Ross MacDonald
• 2008 - Little Boy - Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
• 2009 - Always - Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre
• 2009 - Song of Middle C - Illustrated by Scott Menchin
• 2009 - Only a Witch Can Fly - Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo
• 2010 - So Many Days - Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo
• 2010 - Bink and Gollie (with Kate DiCamillo) - Illustrated by Tony Fucile

The Great Lakes College Association National Fiction Award1999 Minnesota Book Award (Rainlight)

2003 Minnesota Book Award (Countdown to Kindergarten)