| Genre: | Young adult fiction, comics |
| Years Active: | 2013–present |
| Language: | English |
| Birth Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of California, San Diego Emerson College |
| Children: | 1 |
Maurene Goo is a Korean-American author of young adult fiction and comics. Her books have been translated into twelve languages[1] and two of her novels, I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know, have been optioned to be made into feature films by Netflix.
Maurene Goo was born in Los Angeles[2] and raised in Glendale, California.[3] She went to school thinking she was going to become a journalist,[4] and she studied communication and English literature at UC San Diego.[5] She applied to grad schools for journalism, creative writing, and publishing, ending up getting accepted into all. She has a master's in publishing, writing, and literature from Emerson College. Prior to publishing her debut novel, Since You Asked, she worked in publishing and design.[6]
In 2012, she married illustrator Christopher Appelhans.[7] Their son was born in 2020.[8]
Goo published her first young adult novel, Since You Asked, in 2013 with Scholastic. Her sophomore novel, I Believe in A Thing Called Love, was released in 2017, followed by The Way You Make Me Feel (2018), and Somewhere Only We Know (2019). In 2021, Goo completed a five-issue run for Marvel Comics, writing Korean-American superhero Silk, illustrated by Canadian comic book artist Takeshi Miyazawa who has previously illustrated other comics set in the Spider-Verse.[9] [10]
Her newest young adult novel, Throwback, is about a Korean American generation Z teen getting stuck in the 90s. It was published by Zando on April 11, 2023.[11]
Her work has been critically acclaimed and award-winning, receiving multiple starred reviews from Publishers Weekly,[12] [13] Kirkus Reviews,[14] [15] and Booklist, and has appeared on several "Best Book" lists, including NPR (2017, 2018),[16] [17] Cosmo (2019),[18] The Boston Globe (2018),[19] and The New York Public Library (2017, 2018).[20] [21] The Way You Make Me Feel won the California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award,[22] and was a finalist for the California Book Award.[23]