Lauren Tarshis author page

Lauren Tarshis biography

Lauren Tarshis is an American children’s author and editor. She is the author of the I Survived historical fiction series and has also worked extensively in educational publishing at Scholastic, including as editor of Storyworks magazine and an editorial director for language arts.

Tarshis began the I Survived series with I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912, published by Scholastic in 2010. Each novel places a fictional young character within a documented historical disaster or period of upheaval. Subjects have included the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the destruction of Pompeii, the Black Death, the Dust Bowl and the Great Alaska Earthquake. Tarshis conducts extensive historical research for the books, drawing on archives, books, maps, photographs, interviews and visits to relevant locations where possible.

The series has more than 30 million copies in print and has also been adapted into full-colour graphic novels by Scholastic’s Graphix imprint. Tarshis has written narrative non-fiction connected with the series, including I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters.

Her fiction outside the series includes Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree and its sequel, Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, both published by Dial Books for Young Readers.

The 25th I Survived novel, I Survived the Dust Bowl, 1935, was published by Scholastic in October 2025. It was followed by I Survived the Night of the Lions, 2025, the 26th book in the series, published on 15 September 2026 and set in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.