I Was Here (Forman) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—June 5, 1970
• Raised—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—University of Oregon
• Awards—NAIBA Book of the Year Award; Indie Choice Honor Award; British Fantasy Award
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York


Gayle Forman is an American young adult author who began her career writing for Seventeen Magazine where most of her articles focused on young people and social concerns. Later she became a freelance journalist for publications like Details, Jane, Glamour, The Nation, Elle, and Cosmopolitan.

Writing books
In 2002, Forman and her husband Nick took a trip around the world. From her journeys, she garnered a wealth of experiences and information which later served as a basis for her first book a travelogue You Can't Get There From Here: A Year On The Fringes Of A Shrinking World.

In 2007 she published her first young adult novel Sisters in Sanity which she based on an article she had written for Seventeen.

In 2009, Forman released If I Stay, about a 17 year old girl named Mia who has been involved in a tragic car accident. The novel follows Mia's experience as she lies in a coma fully aware of what is going on around her and everything her visitors say and do. Feeling the agony of loss of those closest to her yet aware of the abounding love of those that remain, she must make the choice to hang on or let go. Forman won the 2009 NAIBA Book of the Year Awards and is a 2010 Indie Choice Honor Award winner for If I Stay. The film adaptation of, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, was released in 2014. The sequel, Where She Went, was released in 2011. Told from Adam's point of view, the novel is about Adam and Mia's relationship after the accident.

In 2013, Forman released Just One Day. The novel follows Allyson Healey, who, on the last day of a post-graduation European tour, meets a Dutch vagabond actor named Willem. In an uncharacteristic, spur-of-the moment decision, Allyson goes to Paris with Willem, which leads to "a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life." The sequel, titled Just One Year, was also released in 2013. That novel follows the same chronological path as Allyson's story, but told from the perspective of Willem. The final installment of Allyson and Willem's story, Just One Night, is a 50-page novella released in ebook format in 2014.

Forman's other notable literary awards include the British Fantasy Award (2010), an ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2011), TAYSHAS High School Reading List (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2010).

Gayle resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two daughters. At the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Forman participated in panel discussions. She was on the panel “Young Adult Fiction: Teens and Turmoil” with Jandy Nelson, Cynthia Kadohata and moderator Sonya Sones.

Books
2005 - You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World
2007 - Sisters in Sanity
2009 - If I Stay
2011 - Where She Went
2013 - Just One Day
2013 - Just One Year
2014 - Just One Night
2015 - I Was Here
(Author bio from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/20/2015.)