Thanks for stopping by! I can best be described as an absurd curmudgeonly flibbertigibbet who plans to keep writing until I do a faceplant at my desk. I’m crazy about my three amazing, kindhearted sons and my spiffy husband, who is my best friend and keeps me from getting too down about annoying social trends and the fact that you can’t buy Mr. Pibb around here anymore. Anyway—welcome! Bienvenue! Ahoy-hoy! You’ve crash landed at my highly professional amateur website, and I hope you enjoy your stay.
If you weren’t sure, my name is pronounced with a soft G sound, as in “gelato giraffe.” (Better known soft G Gillians: Gillian Anderson, Gillian Flynn, Gillian Welch, etc.)
Now for the stuffy stuff: it took me almost 20 years of writing failed novels and collecting rejections for my short fiction before my debut novel, GRIT (HarperTeen), was published in 2017. It was an Indie Next List pick, a Junior Library Guild Selection, received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and ALA Booklist, was an Edgar Award Finalist, a South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Finalist, and received both a 2018 Lupine Award from the Maine Library Association and a 2018 Maine Literary Award from the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.
My other novels include THE DOOR TO JANUARY (Islandport Press; Bram Stoker Award Finalist), THE LIES THEY TELL (HarperTeen; 2018 Junior Library Guild Selection, 2019 International Thriller Writers Thriller Award Finalist, 2019 Maine Literary Award Winner), THE MISSING SEASON (HarperTeen; 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection, starred review from Booklist), and my latest, SUGARING OFF (Algonquin Young Readers, now a 2023 North Star YA Award Nominee and an ITW Thriller Award Finalist!). My short fiction has placed in Writer’s Digest and Zoetrope: All Story contests, as well as appearing in such publications as Weirdbook.
I hold a BA in English from the University of Maine, and I’m a member of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and the Mystery Writers of America. I’ve also served as a judge for multiple literary awards, including the Edgar Awards. Currently, I live in my native state of Maine with my family, where I’m perpetually agonizing over my next novel (in the best possible way, of course!)
I’m represented by Alice Tasman of Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.
gillianfrench.com 