Holly Thompson (www.hatbooks.com and hatbooks.blogspot.com) is the author of the young adult verse novels The Language Inside and Orchards (both Delacorte/Random House), and the forthcoming middle grade verse novel Dragon’s Mouth (Henry Holt). She is also author of the adult novel Ash (Stone Bridge Press), the picture book The Wakame Gatherers (Shen’s Books), the forthcoming picture book The Twilight Chant (Clarion), and she edited Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories (Stone Bridge Press). A native of Massachusetts but a longtime resident of Japan, she is a graduate of the NYU Creative Writing Program, writes poetry and fiction for children, teens and adults, teaches academic and creative writing, and serves as regional advisor for the Japan chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.