Thanks for stopping by! If you weren’t sure, my first name is pronounced with a soft G sound, as in “gelato giraffe.”
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; 2023 North Star YA Award Nominee, 2023 ITW Thriller Award Finalist, Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award Finalist). My short fiction has placed in Writer’s Digest and Zoetrope: All Story contests, as well as appearing in such publications as Mystery Tribune (click here to view issue) and Weirdbook.
I hold a BA in English, and I’m a member of 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 husband and our three young sons, 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 