Lisa McMann

About Lisa McMann

Lisa McMann was born February 27, 1968, in Holland, Michigan, and graduated from Calvin College in 1990. She worked other jobs before her writing career took off in 2007, when her debut novel, Wake, became a New York Times bestseller for children's chapter books. That success launched a prolific career in young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction spanning more than a dozen novels and several long-running series.

McMann married musician Matt McMann in 1991, and the couple raised two children, including actress Kennedy McMann. The family now lives in Tempe, Arizona, where McMann continues to write full time.

The Wake Trilogy and Beyond

Wake (2008) introduced readers to Janie Hannagan, a teenager involuntarily pulled into the dreams of the people around her—a power that isolates her even as it draws her into other people's darkest secrets. The trilogy continued with Fade (2009), in which Janie's dream-walking exposes a predatory adult inside her high school, and concluded with Gone (2010). All three books spent multiple weeks on national bestseller lists.

McMann went on to create the seven-book Unwanteds series (2011–2016), a middle-grade fantasy about creative children banished to a magical island, followed by its spin-off series, The Unwanteds Quests. Her other work includes the Visions trilogy and the Forgotten Five series, cementing her reputation as one of the more prolific voices in contemporary YA and middle-grade fantasy.

Book Challenges

Fade's central storyline—which surfaces evidence of a school employee's sexual exploitation of students through Janie's dream-walking—has made it a frequent target of removal requests, alongside objections to its depiction of a teenage sexual relationship and disturbing imagery. Across this catalog, McMann's books have been challenged or restricted in 6 states and 27 school districts, making her one of the more frequently challenged authors of paranormal young adult fiction.