Lillie Vale is the young adult author of ALA's 2020 Rainbow Books List selection Small Town Hearts and Beauty and the Besharam (forthcoming from Viking Children’s). She writes about girls fighting back, secret-keeping and between-places, the ways in which we’re haunted, food as a love language, and all the feels. Born in Mumbai, she grew up in Mississippi, Texas, and North Dakota, and now lives in an Indiana college town where the corn whispers and the woods creep. Vale graduated with an MBA and now holds her dream job as a professional world builder and (sometimes) ship sinker. Loves a good monster metaphor. Always dreaming of crumbling ivy-covered castles and going back to the seaside. Her debut adult romantic comedy, The Shaadi Set-Up, releases in 2021.