Trisha Speed Shaskan was born and raised in Winona, Minnesota, where she waterskied on the Mississippi River, played basketball, and skateboarded. She has written more than forty books for children and taught creative writing to children and teens. Trisha received a 2012 Minnesota State Artist''s Initiative Grant. She won the 2009 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers, Loft Award in Children''s Literature/Older Children. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Stephen Shaskan, who is a children''s book author and illustrator.