Lisa McMann (born February 27, 1968) is an American author and the creator of The Unwanteds and The Unwanteds Quests series for young readers and the WAKE trilogy for young adults. McMann was born in Holland, Michigan and now lives in Tempe, Arizona. She graduated from Calvin College in 1990. Her first novel, WAKE, debuted on the New York Times best-seller list for children’s chapter books. She is also the author of FADE, which debuted on the New York Times best-seller list and remained there eleven weeks, and of GONE, the last book in the WAKE series, which was released February 2010.