Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Funke was born on December 10, 1958, in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, and grew up with a deep love of books and art that shaped both her chosen career and the distinctive visual quality of her fiction. She studied at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, where she trained as an illustrator, and worked for many years creating illustrations for children’s books before beginning to write her own stories. This background as a visual artist has had a profound influence on Funke’s writing — her prose is intensely pictorial, building worlds with the precision and color of an illustrator conjuring images on a page.

Funke established herself as a major figure in German children’s literature before she became known to English-speaking audiences. Her breakthrough to international recognition came with The Thief Lord (2000, English translation 2002), a story set in Venice about orphaned brothers who join a gang of runaway children led by a mysterious boy who calls himself the Thief Lord. The novel was an immediate success in English, winning the Book Sense Book of the Year and introducing a global audience to Funke’s ability to conjure atmosphere and create characters of genuine depth and complexity. Its Venice setting — brought to life with loving specificity — demonstrated Funke’s gift for using place as a narrative force.

Funke’s most celebrated work is the Inkheart trilogy, beginning with Inkheart (2003, English translation 2003). The series centers on Meggie and her father Mo, a bookbinder with the magical ability to bring characters out of books when he reads aloud — and to send people from the real world into the stories. The premise is a love letter to the power of books and reading, and Funke develops it with extraordinary richness, creating a fictional world — Inkworld — as fully realized as any in contemporary fantasy literature. The trilogy won the prestigious BookSense Book of the Year and cemented Funke’s reputation as one of the finest fantasy writers for young readers in the world.

Funke relocated to Los Angeles in 2005, and her subsequent work has reflected both her European literary roots and her American experiences. Her Mirrorworld series introduced a new fantasy world of breathtaking invention, and her Reckless series draws on European fairy tale traditions with adult complexity. Funke writes with an intensity and seriousness that treats her young audiences as fully capable of engaging with literary fiction of genuine ambition and beauty. She is one of the best-selling German authors of all time and one of the most beloved fantasy writers currently working in children’s literature.