Cornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German author, best known for writing the Inkworld trilogy as well as The Thief Lord. The Inkworld books, which have won the 2003 Mildred L. Batchelder Award as well as the 2004 and 2006 BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature Awards, have gained incredible attention and Funke has been dubbed the "German J.K. Rowling” This November, she will launch her own publishing company, Breathing Books. She lives in Los Angeles, California.