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Libba Bray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Libba Bray
Libba Bray
Born
Martha Elizabeth Bray

(1964-03-11) March 11, 1964 (age 62)
Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Texas at Austin
OccupationAuthor
Notable workGemma Doyle Trilogy
SpouseBarry Goldblatt (former)
Children1

Martha Elizabeth "Libba" Bray[1] (March 11, 1964) is an American writer of young adult novels including the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Going Bovine, Beauty Queens, The Diviners series, and Under the Same Stars.

Life

[edit]

Martha Elizabeth Bray was born in Montgomery, Alabama.[1] Her father was a gay[2] Presbyterian minister, and her mother was an English teacher.[3][4]

She and her family moved to West Virginia for a brief period,[5] then to Corpus Christi, Texas, and finally to Denton, Texas,[2] where Bray attended high school.[5] At the age of eighteen, three weeks after graduating high school, Bray was involved in a serious car accident.[2] She had to undergo thirteen surgeries over six years to reconstruct her face, and has an artificial left eye because of the accident.[6]

Bray graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988 as a theater major.[1] When her childhood best friend, who was living in Manhattan, called saying she was looking for a roommate, Bray moved to New York City.[7]

Bray was married to Barry Goldblatt, a children's book agent, with whom she shares a son, Josh.[3][8]

Career

[edit]

Bray's first job was in the publicity department of Penguin Putnam, followed by three years at Spier, an agency specializing in book advertising.[7]

Bray was encouraged to write a young adult novel by her husband, a children's book agent, and Ginee Seo, an editor at Simon & Schuster. Before this, using a pseudonym, she had written three books for 17th Street Press.[7][clarification needed]

Her first novel, A Great and Terrible Beauty, became a New York Times bestseller.[citation needed] In November 2006, a video promoting the book was a part of The Book Standard's Teen Book Video Awards.[9] She wrote two more books to finish the Gemma Doyle Trilogy: Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing.[10]

Going Bovine was published by Delacorte in 2009 and won the Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association recognizing literary excellence in young adult literature.[11] It is a dark comedy about a 16-year-old boy named Cameron who has mad cow disease. He and his friends, a 16-year-old hypochondriac video gamer with dwarfism named Gonzo and a punk angel named Dulcie who spray-paints her wings, go on a mission to cure Cameron's disease.[12]

Beauty Queens, about a group of beauty pageant contestants whose plane crashes on an island, was published by Scholastic Press in May 2011.[13]

Bray's novel, The Diviners, was published on September 18, 2012.[14] It centers around Evie O'Neill, a seventeen-year-old with a special power who has been sent to live with her uncle in New York City in 1926.[15] The sequel, Lair of Dreams, was released in August 2015[16] and the third book, Before The Devil Breaks You, was released in October 2017.[17] The fourth and final book in the series, The King of Crows, was released in February 2020.[citation needed]

Awards and honors

[edit]

Awards

[edit]
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2010 Going Bovine Michael L. Printz Award Winner [18][19]
Audie Award for Teen Title Finalist [20]
2012 Beauty Queens Audie Award for Narration by the Author Winner [21][22]
Audie Award for Teen Title Finalist [23][22]
2013 The Diviners Audie Award for Teen Title Finalist [24]
2016 Lair of Dreams Audie Award for Best Female Narrator Finalist [25]
Audie Award for Young Adult Title Winner [25]
2018 Before the Devil Breaks You Audie Award for Young Adult Title Finalist [26]

Honors

[edit]

A Great and Terrible Beauty and The Sweet Far Thing received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly.[27][28] Going Bovine received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly.[29][30] Before the Devil Breaks You and the audiobook renditions of Beauty Queens and The King of Crows received starred reviews from Booklist.[31][32][33] The Diviners received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly.[34][35][36] Lair of Dreams received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.[37][38]

A Great and Terrible Beauty,[39] Rebel Angels,[40] and The Sweet Far Thing[41] were national bestsellers for children's fiction.

Year Title Honor Ref.
2006 Rebel Angels ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults [42]
2011 Beauty Queens Booklist Editors' Choice: Media [43]
2012 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults [44]
ALA Amelia Bloomer List [45]
ALA Rainbow Book List [46]
Booklist Best Fiction for Young Adults [47]
Going Bovine Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults [48]
2013 The Diviners Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults [49]
ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults [50]
2016 Lair of Dreams ALA Rainbow Book List [51]

Publications

[edit]

Gemma Doyle Trilogy

[edit]
  1. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Delacorte (2003)
  2. Rebel Angels, Delacorte (2005)
  3. The Sweet Far Thing, Delacorte (2007)

The Diviners series

[edit]
  1. The Diviners, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2012)
  2. Lair of Dreams, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2015)
  3. Before the Devil Breaks You, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2017)
  4. The King of Crows, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2020)

Standalone novels

[edit]

Anthologized short stories

[edit]
  • "Primate the Prom", in 21 Proms, eds. David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft, Scholastic Paperbacks (2007)
  • "Bad Things", in The Restless Dead, ed. Deborah Noyes, Candlewick Press (2007)
  • "Not Just for Breakfast Anymore", in Up All Night, HarperTeen, (2008)
  • "Nowhere Is Safe", in Vacations from Hell, HarperTeen (2009)
  • "The Thirteenth Step", in The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire, ed. Trisha Telep, Running Press (2009)
  • "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls", in Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press (2015)

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 "Libba Bray: Eco-Friendly Fembot Who Survives on the Tears of Teen Girls". Locus. 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  2. 1 2 3 Bartel, Julie (2015-10-01). "One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Libba Bray". The Hub. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  3. 1 2 "Bray, Libba (Martha E. Bray)". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  4. ↑ White, Claire E. (February 2004). "Libba Bray Interview". Writers Write. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  5. 1 2 "About Libba". Libba Bray. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  6. ↑ "Libba Bray: About the author". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  7. 1 2 3 Brown, Jennifer M. (December 22, 2003). "Flying Starts: Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  8. ↑ Corbett, Sue (2007-11-29). "PW Talks with Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  9. ↑ Maul, Kimberley (November 28, 2006). "Teen Book Video Awards Debut Tonight". The Book Standard. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11.
  10. ↑ "The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  11. ↑ "Michael L. Printz Winners and Honor Books". Young Adult Library Services Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  12. ↑ "Going Bovine by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2009-08-03. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  13. ↑ Shadoan, Shanna (2011-11-15). "'Beauty Queens' by Libba Bray". Lambda Literary Review. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  14. ↑ Bondi, Gabrielle (2012-11-07). "Book Review: 'The Diviners' by Libba Bray". The Young Folks. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  15. ↑ Kennelly, Savannah (2019-06-10). "All My Thoughts on The Diviners by Libba Bray". The NOVL. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  16. ↑ "LAIR OF DREAMS". Kirkus Reviews. June 15, 2015.
  17. ↑ "BEFORE THE DEVIL BREAKS YOU". Kirkus Reviews. October 25, 2017.
  18. ↑ "2010 Michael L. Printz Award". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). 2010-01-13. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  19. ↑ Morales, Macey; Petersen, Jennifer (2010-01-18). "'Going Bovine' Wins 2010 Printz Award". American Library Association. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  20. ↑ "2010 audie-awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  21. ↑ Boretz, Adam (May 29, 2014). "Billy Crystal Takes Top Honors at 2014 Audie Awards". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  22. 1 2 "2012 audie-awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  23. ↑ "Audie Award Winners: Best Audio Books 2012". Seattle Public Library. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  24. ↑ "2013 audie-awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  25. 1 2 "2016 audie-awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  26. ↑ "2018 audie-awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  27. ↑ "A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2003-12-08. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  28. ↑ "The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  29. ↑ Engberg, Gillian (August 2009). "Going Bovine". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  30. ↑ "Going Bovine by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2009-08-03. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  31. ↑ Smith, Julia (2017-11-01). "Before the Devil Breaks You". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  32. ↑ Burkey, Mary (September 15, 2011). "Beauty Queens". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  33. ↑ Booth, Heather (2020-05-15). "The King of Crows". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  34. ↑ Kraus, Daniel (July 2012). "The Diviners". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  35. ↑ "The Diviners". Kirkus Reviews. July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  36. ↑ "The Diviners by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  37. ↑ "Lair of Dreams". Kirkus Reviews. June 16, 2015. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  38. ↑ "Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray". Publishers Weekly. 2015-08-17. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  39. ↑ Maryles, Daisy (2005-08-15). "Children's Fiction Bestsellers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  40. ↑ Roback, Diane (2007-02-12). "Children's Fiction Bestsellers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  41. ↑ Roback, Diane (2008-01-14). "Children's Fiction Bestsellers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  42. ↑ "Rebel Angels | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2010-03-28. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  43. ↑ "Beauty Queens | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  44. ↑ "2012 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Top Ten". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  45. ↑ "Amelia Bloomer List: 2012". Booklist. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  46. ↑ "Rainbow List: 2012". Booklist. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  47. ↑ "Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012". Booklist. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  48. ↑ "Going Bovine | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  49. ↑ "The Diviners | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  50. ↑ "The Diviners | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  51. ↑ "Lair of Dreams | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
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