Martha Brockenbrough author page

Martha Brockenbrough biography

Martha Brockenbrough writes for young readers across picture books, middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for young readers, including the picture books I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story, This Old Dog and Cheerful Chick. I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story was an ALA Notable Book for Children.

Her middle-grade novels include At the Edge of Lost and To Catch a Thief. She has also written chapter books, picture books, young adult novels and nonfiction titles. She is the director of the University of San Francisco’s MFA writing for young readers programme.

Her young adult books include Devine Intervention, The Game of Love and Death, Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary, Unpresidented, Into the Bloodred Woods and Future Tense. The Game of Love and Death was published on 28 April 2015, and Future Tense was published on 19 March 2024.

Brockenbrough has also written books for adults, including Things That Make Us [Sic], a guide to English usage, and It Could Happen to You, a diary about pregnancy. She founded National Grammar Day and the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Before publishing Devine Intervention, Brockenbrough had worked as a newspaper reporter, a high-school teacher and an editor of MSN.com. Her later children’s publications include A Gift of Dust, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, on 27 May 2025, At the Edge of Lost on 21 October 2025, and Otis Knows (How to Be a Bear), written with Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Stephanie Laberis, on 5 May 2026.