Jacquelyn Mitchard is a renowned American author and journalist, known for her fiction, non-fiction, young adult novels, and children's books. She was born and raised on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois, and comes from a diverse family background, with a plumber father from Newfoundland and a mother who was a hardware store clerk and a member of the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Cree tribe. Mitchard's passion for writing began at a young age, and she went on to study under Mark Costello, the author of The Murphy Stories, at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Mitchard's first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, brought her widespread recognition and success. The novel, which was named by USA Today as one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years, was chosen as the first novel for Oprah Winfrey's book club and was adapted into a feature film produced by and starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The Deep End of the Ocean was a major bestseller, as have been many of Mitchard's subsequent novels, including The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Twelve Times Blessed, The Breakdown Lane, The Good Son, and Cage of Stars. Her writing is praised for its authentic humanity and command of story, and her characters resonate with readers as they see their own emotions reflected in even the most extreme circumstances.
In addition to her novels for adults, Mitchard has also written four young adult novels. These include Now You See Her, All We Know of Heaven, The Midnight Twins, and A Very Inconvenient Scandal. The Midnight Twins is particularly notable as it is the first in a trilogy of teen mysteries about identical twin sisters born on New Year's Eve, and it is currently in development as a TV series by Kaleidoscope Entertainment.
Mitchard's writing has been recognized with numerous awards and nominations, including the Shirley Jackson Award, The Women's Prize for Fiction, UK's Talkabout Prize, The Heartland Prize, and the Bram Stoker Award. She is a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Ragdale Foundation, and she has taught in MFA programs in Vermont, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Mitchard is also a member of the Tall Poppies Writers and frequently writes for publications such as Glamour, O the Oprah Winfrey Magazine, Marie Claire, and Readers Digest. She currently resides on Cape Cod with her family.