Amanda Joy grew up in a family of readers. Her father first gifted her a set of the Chronicles of Narnia and sparked her unending love of fantasy and children’s literature. Years later, her older brother gave her the Wheel of Time series, which went on to inspire Amanda to create her own worlds. She knew from an early age that she wanted to be a writer and spent most of high school staying up all night reading and writing. She studied English and Psychology at the University of Missouri, and went on to earn an MFA in Writing for Children at the New School. While at the New School, she began writing about a princess who felt out of place in her family and was quite literally under siege in her home. That became Amanda’s first novel, A River of Royal Blood, which went on to earn the distinction of Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
You can find Amanda touring the city’s coffeeshops, taking pictures of her ever expanding library, and trekking around Chicago with her dog, Luna.
“A sibling rivalry like nothing you’ve ever read before. Joy weaves a dark yet delicate treatise on race, heritage, and power whilst never losing that addictive ‘just one more chapter’ allure. I devoured it in one sitting!” — Natasha Ngan, New York Times bestselling author of Girls of Paper and Fire
