Lily Anderson (December 15, 1988) is an author of young adult fiction, best known for her Indie's Choice Book Award-nominated novel ''Undead Girl Gang''.

Personal life

Anderson is an Afrolatina of Puerto Rican descent. She has been a

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...

n since she was eight years old. After she dropped out of college at age 18, Anderson wrote her first book and decided she wanted to become a published writer. Anderson grew up doing theatre and is a self-proclaimed theatre geek, saying that she did her first

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

play when she was 12 or 13 years old, which ultimately led to her writing both novels in her debut young adult series The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You as retellings of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

and William Shakespeare's

Much Ado about Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

. Anderson is an elementary school librarian and lives in Northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She names American screenwriter and director Shonda Rimes and American plus-size model

Tess Holliday Ryann Maegen Hoven, known professionally as Tess Holliday and formerly known as Tess Munster (born July 5, 1985), is an American plus-size model, blogger, and make-up artist based in Los Angeles. Early life Holliday was born and raised in Lau ...

as the sources of some of her inspiration.

Selected works

She drew on her own experience as a Wiccan for her novel ''Undead Girl Gang,'' in which a teenage Wiccan resurrects her dead best friend. Other inspirations for the novel include dark comedy teenage obsessions of hers, namely the movies '' The Craft'', ''

Heathers ''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...

'' and ''

Death Becomes Her ''Death Becomes Her'' is a 1992 American satirical black comedy fantasy film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis. Written by David Koepp and Martin Donovan, it stars Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as rivals who fight for the affections of th ...

''.

Bibliography

Series Messina Academy Duology # ''The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You'' (

St. Martin's Griffin St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the pub ...

, 2016) # ''Not Now Not Ever'' (

Wednesday Books St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

, 2017) Standalones * ''Undead Girl Gang'' (

Razorbill The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impe ...

, 2018) * ''The Throwback List'' ( Hyperion Avenue, 2021) * ''Scout's Honor'' ( Henry Holt, 2022) * ''Big Bad'', a

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

novel ( Hyperion Avenue, 2022)

Awards

Nominated * 2019 Indies Choice for ''Undead Girl Gang'' * 2022 Michael L. Printz Honor for "Scout's Honor"

References

Living people 21st-century American novelists African-American librarians American women librarians American librarians Hispanic and Latino American librarians Wiccan novelists 1988 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women American Wiccans {{US-novelist-1980s-stub