In middle school, Calissa Ding was constantly holed up in her room with a book. Now she writes for kids like her younger self, penning middle grade novels where characters discover wonder in the real world and home in unlikely places. In her free time, she can be found playing Chopin’s nocturnes on the piano, appreciating the quiet beauty of a Studio Ghibli movie, or consuming an overabundance of matcha. She graduated from The Author Conservatory with dual certification in Creative Writing & Publishing and Business & Entrepreneurship.

You can find her on Instagram at @calissadingauthor. She is represented by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media.