The daughter of a geologist and a journalist, J.L. Powers spent much of her childhood camping and searching for fossils in the American West. She grew up on the U.S.-Mexico Border and, though she now lives in California, still considers El Paso home.Powers is the author of three novels for young adults, The Confessional (Knopf, 2007); This Thing Called the Future (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), and Amina (Allen & Unwin, 2013) and editor of two anthologies, That Mad Game: Growing up in a Warzone, an anthology of essays from around the world (Cinco Puntos Press, 2012) and Labor Pains and Birth Stories: essays on pregnancy, birth, and becoming a parent (Catalyst Book Press, 2009). Her first picture book, Colors of the Wind: The story of blind artist and champion runner George Mendoza, illustrated with Mendoza's stunning full-color paintings, will be released September 2014 by Purple House Press.Powers writes for and edits The Pirate Tree (www.thepiratetree.com), a blog on social justice and children's literature. She also co-collaborates on Mother, Writer, Mentor (www.motherwritermentor.com), a blog that deals with the topic of parenthood and writing. A frequent contributor to New Pages, she is currently at work on other projects. She lives with her family in northern California.