Emily Arnold McCully

Emily Arnold was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and moved with her family to Long Island when she was five. She started to draw at about age three or four, around the same time she learned to read. At Brown University, she helped write a musical comedy and acted in plays. After graduation, she worked at an advertising agency in New York City and earned a master's degree in art history from Columbia University. In 1976, she published a short story in The Massachusetts Review, whch was followed by two novels, A Craving (1982) and Life Drawing (1986). She then began illustrating and later writing children's books. She won the 1993 Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. In 2012, she illustrated Ballerina Swan, written by legendary New York City Ballet ballerina Allegra Kent. She has performed as an actress at Capital Rep in Albany and at The Vineyard Theater in New York City.