Kersten Hamilton

I was born in a trailer in High Rolls, New Mexico, in 1958. By my sixth birthday, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a writer. I was fascinated by the sound of words, the sweep of story. I wanted to make word magic and tuck it inside the covers of a book. A writer needs a very tough skin. And she needs something to write about. Fortunately, my parents were quite eccentric. My childhood can only be described as ‘exciting.’ I tracked caribou and arctic wolves across my family’s homestead in Alaska, caught tiny tree frogs in the swamps and rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, and chased dust devils and rattlesnakes across the high desert of New Mexico. Against all odds, I survived my many misadventures. I was not electrocuted or drowned. Most of the bullets missed, and the incidents with bears, snakes, wolves, and angry moose were not fatal. Before I settled down to have children I worked as a ranch hand, a wood cutter, a lumberjack, a census taker, a wrangler for wilderness guides, and an archeological surveyor. I am the author of several picture books and many middle grade novels. Tyger Tyger, book one of the Goblin Wars series, is my first novel for young adults.