Daniel José Older
“I think storytelling is our deepest form of expression. It’s something we all do as humans, and I think it very often saves our lives. It’s how we process the world. It’s how we understand things and muddle through the problems we’re going through, whether they’re personal problems or gigantic, world-changing problems.”
“Older’s spellbinding novel is a fever dream full of magic and loss, wickedness and grace, faith and love, spirit and power.”
“Thoroughly transportive... This moving story of family and freedom is sure to captivate readers”
“With lyricism and atmosphere, Older skillfully emphasizes tone... Haunting, melancholy, and undeniably inspiring.”
“In the best urban fantasy, the city is not just a backdrop, but functions as a character in its own right, offering up parallels between personal histories and histories of place. That is certainly true in Daniel José Older’s magnificent “Shadowshaper,” which gives us a Brooklyn that is vital, authentic and under attack.”
Daniel José Older is an award-winning author of both YA and adult books and comics, including the urban fantasy series Outlaw Saints, the sci-fi adventure Flood City (Scholastic, 2021), and the monthly comic series The High Republic Adventures. His other books include the historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, The Book of Lost Saints (Macmillan, 2019), the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, and Star Wars: Last Shot (Del Rey, 2018). Shadowshaper (Scholastic, 2016), part of his YA series the Shadowshaper Cypher, was named one of the best fantasy books of all time by TIME magazine and one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. He is also the a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic.
Winner of the International Latino Book Award, Older has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the World Fantasy Award, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, and the Mythopoeic Award. His journalism on social justice, diversity, and gentrification appears regularly in The Guardian.
He offers multiple workshops on storycraft, as well as a series of workshops entitled “Shape Your Shadow,” which engages diversity and literature in a much needed conversation. Describing the workshop, Older notes, “Moving into a new era of a more equitable book world means strategizing new ways to change the demographics of writing and publishing, and lifting up voices that haven’t been heard enough.”
Older lives, writes, and composes music in New Orleans.
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