Shannon Hale and Dean Hale are the award-winning husband-and-wife team behind the Princess in Black series, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. Shannon Hale is also the author of the Newbery Honor Book Princess Academy as well as the New York Times best-selling graphic novels Real Friends and Best Friends, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. Shannon Hale and Dean Hale live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

LeUyen Pham is the illustrator of the Princess in Black series as well as many other books for children, including Love Is Powerful, Pat-a-Cake by Mary Brigid Barrett, God's Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams, Aunt Mary's Rose by Douglas Wood, and Real Friends and Best Friends by Shannon Hale. LeUyen Pham lives in California.