Megan McCafferty
Megan McCafferty (born February 3, 1973) is a contemporary U.S. author most known for her series of books about Jessica Darling, a witty teenage heroine. These books are often classified as chick lit for young adults.
McCafferty hails from New Jersey, and attended the University of Richmond before transferring to Columbia University to earn a bachelor's degree in English. After graduation, McCafferty worked in magazine publishing as an editor for Cosmopolitan, YM, and Fitness magazines. She began her writing career with writing short stories and articles for various teen magazines.
McCafferty now works as a full-time writer. Her novels include: Sloppy Firsts (2001), Second Helpings, and Charmed Thirds. She has also edited an anthology called Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday. McCafferty's novels are written in first-person diary format, and are replete with references to 1980s and current pop culture. The Jessica Darling series follows Jessica through high school into her college years. Many fans are drawn to the books for the infamous love interest Marcus Flutie and Jessica's witty take on suburban high-school life. Her work has been translated into ten languages and has been awarded numerous honors by such associations as the American Library Association and the New York Public Library.
McCafferty keeps what she terms a "retro(blog)" in which she posts actual journal entries from her adolescence, which can be found at her website.
Presently, Megan lives in New Jersey. She is at work on a fifth--and final--Jessica Darling novel which concludes the series. The fourth novel of the series, Fourth Comings, came out on August 7, 2007.
See also
- Kaavya Viswanathan, a Harvard student accused of plagiarizing McCafferty's works