Sherri L. Smith is the award-winning author of eight Young Adult and Middle Grade novels, children’s nonfiction, and comic books.  Her books have been listed as Amelia Bloomer, American Library Association Best Books for Young People, and Junior Library Guild Selections.  Her bestselling novel, The Toymaker’s Apprentice  is the Southern California Booksellers Association Award winner for Middle Grade. Flygirl was the 2009 California Book Awards Gold Medalist. Sherri was a 2014 National Book Awards judge in the Young People’s Literature category. She is a three-time writer-in-resident at Hedgebrook retreat in Washington State, as well as a resident at Wassard Elea retreat, in Ascea, Italy.

Born in Chicago, IL, she has lived on all three coasts (West, East and Lake Michigan!). She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Broadcast Journalism, an M.S. in Business and an M.A. in Humanities, as well as a certificate in Enchantivism the from Pacifica Institute. 

Sherri has worked in film, animation, comic books and construction. She worked in stop-motion animation on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, and spent three years at Disney TV Animation, helping to create stories for animated home video projects.

Upon leaving Disney, Sherri found an unlikely home with a construction company, working in a triple-wide trailer on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport, while she worked on her first novel. From there she went on to work and write for Bongo Comics, the company that brings you The Simpsons in print. Recently, she worked in a monster factory, wrangling the folks that make monsters and dead people for movies and television.

Sherri is a faculty member of the Creative Writing MFA program at Goddard College and the MFA in Children's Writing at Hamline University.  She is also a member of the Two Trees Writers’ Collaborative.  She lives in Los Angeles with the love of her life and a disreputable cat.

She is represented by Kirby Kim of Janklow and Nesbit.