Bio

Photo credit: @chiaragoldphotos

Megan McCafferty has written about adolescence for two decades.  The author of thirteen novels, she is best known for the original Jessica Darling series which was described by the Wall Street Journal as “Judy Blume meets Dorothy Parker.” Twentieth anniversary editions of the entire Jessica Darling series went on sale throughout 2021-2022. SLOPPY FIRSTS (2001), was ALA Top 10 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, an ALA Popular Paperback, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. Its sequel, SECOND HELPINGS (2003) was also selected to the NYPL list, and was a Booklist Editor’s Pick for one of the best novels of the year. CHARMED THIRDS (2006)  FOURTH COMINGS (2007) and PERFECT FIFTHS (2009) were instant New York Times and USA Today bestsellers.  In March 2018, Megan’s stage adaption of SLOPPY FIRSTS premiered at Round House Theater.

In March 2022, Scholastic released BEST FRENEMIES FOREVER, a sequel to TRUE TO YOUR SELFIE (MG, Scholastic).  Set entirely in a New Jersey “monument to consumerism” in 1991, her 2020 novel THE MALL (YA, Wednesday Books) technically qualifies as historical fiction. In 2013, she launched a series of middle-grade prequels to the Jessica Darling series. The first book inspired  JESSICA DARLING’S IT LIST, starring Chloe East, co-produced by Debby Ryan and featured on Netflix. She also wrote the futuristic satires BUMPED and THUMPED, described in Publisher’s Weekly as “sharply funny and provocative” and edited the anthology SIXTEEN: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday (2004). She has contributed to many fiction and nonfiction anthologies including Dear Bully (2011),  My Little Red Book (2009), Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? (2008) and Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume (2007). Before she was a novelist she wrote and edited for Glamour, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan among many other national magazines. Her work has been translated into fourteen languages including German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and Hungarian.

Megan lives with her husband and son in Princeton, New Jersey where she works in Youth Services at Princeton Public Library. She has volunteered for HiTOPS and Good Grief and is Princeton University Community Fellow for Mathey College. For more,  she’s @mccafferty.megan on Instagram though she mostly uses it to make comments on her favorite podcasts and post news about New Yacht City, the band she is currently singing with. You can also write her an email: megan@meganmccafferty.com. Representation: Heather Schroder, Compass Talent, hschroder@compassliterary.net