Anatomy of a Misfit

Andrea Portes is the bestselling novelist of two critically lauded adult novels, Hick, her debut, which was made into a feature film starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, and Juliette Lewis, and Bury This. Her first novel for young adult readers, Anatomy of a Misfit, was called "perfection in book form" by Teen Vogue. Andrea grew up shuffled around between such disparate locales as Nebraska, Brasilia, Texas, Rio de Janeiro, Baltimore, North Dakota, California, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Finally Andrea was granted relief from this nomadic existence when she was accepted to Bryn Mawr College. She attended on a full scholarship and later graduated cum laude, with a major in English literature. She then earned her Masters in Fine Arts degree from UC San Diego. After her relentless education, Andrea moved to the neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles, where she spent years mostly getting into trouble. It was in this period of vague nothingness that Andrea penned her debut novel, in longhand in three notebooks. Currently she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Sandy Tolan, their son, Wyatt, and their dog, Rascal. You can visit her online at www.andreaportes.com.