Nova Ren Suma is the author of The Walls Around Us as well as the YA novels Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone, which were both named 2014 Outstanding Books for the College Bound by YALSA. She has a BA in writing  photography from Antioch College and an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has been awarded fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Millay Colony and an NEA fellowship for a residency at the Hambidge Center.