Jeff Zentner is the author of the New York Times Notable Books The Serpent King and In the Wild Light . He has won the ALA's William C. Morris Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award twice, the Muriel Becker Award, and the International Literacy Association Award for Young Adult Fiction and has been longlisted twice for the Carnegie Medal. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville.