Mark Z. Danielewski was born in New York City and lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of the award-winning and bestselling novel House of Leaves, National Book Award finalist Only Revolutions, a children’s book for your younger self The Little Blue Kite, and the novella The Fifty Year Sword, which was performed on Halloween three years in a row at REDCAT. His books have been translated into multiple languages, and his work has been the focus of university classes and literary events. In 2015, Danielewski's THROWN, a reflection on Matthew Barney's CREMASTER 2, was displayed at the Guggenheim Museum during its Storylines exhibition. Between 2015-2017, Pantheon released five volumes of The Familiar, each an 880-page installment about a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten and sets off a chain reaction with global consequences. With the release of the series, the New York Times declared Danielewski "America's foremost literary Magus." His latest release, Tom’s Crossing, is in bookstores now. Jacob Brogan for The Washington Post wrote: "Call me a sap, but I kept crying through much of what followed. Less because there’s tragedy here, though there’s plenty, than because of all the love that persists in spite of it. It’s the love that keeps you going, the love that promises tomorrows after this relentless procession of four very long todays. The love, too, that gives you your heart in the way that only fictions can. I loved this book. I imagine that almost everyone who reads it through will try to heave a copy into your hands. Let me be the first. Pick it up, and be patient with its loping rhythms until you find your own. Gallop or trot real slow."