Kate DiCamillo

DiCamillo was born in Pennsylvania, but due to her childhood chronic pneumonia, she moved to Florida with her mother and older brother when she was four years old. Her father, an orthodontist, didn’t follow the family. She studied English at the University of Florida, graduated in 1987, and moved to Minneapolis in 1994. While working at a book warehouse in Minneapolis, DiCamillo became interested in children’s fiction and published Because of Winn-Dixie, her first book, in 2000. Since then, DiCamillo has written and published prolifically, publishing other children’s novels, chapter books for beginning readers, and picture books, as well as contributing short stories for various collections. The Tale of Despereaux and DiCamillo’s novel Flora and Ulysses were honored with Newbery Medals. From 2014 to 2015, she was the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Despereaux was inspired by her best friend’s son asking her to tell a story about an unlikely hero with big ears.