Holly Black

Holly Black is an American author who has spent over two decades as one of the defining voices in young adult fantasy, moving between menacing faerie courts and other dark, richly imagined worlds. She first broke through with Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (2002) and, working with illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, co-created the bestselling middle-grade series The Spiderwick Chronicles, adapted into a 2008 film and a newer television series that premiered on Roku in 2024. Her adult fantasy debut, Book of Night, arrived in 2022 and became a New York Times bestseller in its own right. Black is best known today for The Cruel Prince (2018) and its sequels, together making up The Folk of the Air quartet, a court-intrigue series following a mortal girl scheming for power among cruel and beautiful faeries; it spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and later expanded into the same-world Stolen Heir duology. New readers should start with The Cruel Prince for her signature blend of romance, betrayal, and political maneuvering, or Tithe for a shorter, moodier introduction to her early style. Her body of work has earned a Newbery Honor, a Nebula Award, and a Mythopoeic Award; she lives in New England with her family.