About the Author and Conversation Partners
Maureen Johnson is the
New York Times and
USA Today bestselling author of many YA novels. Maureen has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University. She has been nominated for an Edgar Award and the Andre Norton Award, and her books appear frequently on YALSA and state awards lists. Maureen lives in New York, and online on Twitter (or at
www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com).
Kemper Donovan attended Stanford University where he received his B.A. in English literature with honors for a thesis about Wilkie Collins and the nature of adaptation. He also attended Harvard Law School. His first novel, The Decent Proposal, was published by HarperCollins in the U.S. Catherine Brobeck attended Yale University where she received her B.A. in Comparative Literature with honors for a thesis about social realist narratives as they involve crime and geography in the Depression-Era Los Angeles novel. She has subsequently written about art, the food industry, and women’s health and wellness. Together, they host the podcast All About Agatha, which engages in a novel-by-novel analysis of Agatha Christie—as purposeful as it is playful, proceeding in order of publication. At the end of each episode, they rank the novel in question according to pre-set criteria, because imposing objective standards on a subjective experience like reading a novel is the kind of flawed/maddening exercise that leads to further, more fruitful evaluation and discussion. Such, anyway, is their hope. They also take lots of breaks between novels to discuss her many (100-plus) short stories, and to interview like-minded mystery obsessives (scholars and contemporary authors). The podcast is free to download on all major platforms.
