Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine (born 17 September 1947 in New York, N.Y.) is an American author of young adult books, including two in the Disney Fairies franchise.

Telling fairy tales with a twist is a hallmark of Levine's writing. Her first published novel was Ella Enchanted (1997), which received a Newbery Honor. Fairest (2006), a retelling of the Snow White story, is set in the same universe. Her Princess Tales series, set in the Kingdom of Biddle, is a collection of light-hearted and heart-warming adventures with smart, sassy heroes and heroines.

Levine wrote Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, an illustrated novel for young readers, published in 2005 by Disney Press as the cornerstone of the new "Disney Fairies" franchise. The novel explores the world of Never Land and the community of fairies who live in the area of the island known as Fairy Haven. Familiar characters such as Tinker Bell and Captain Hook appear in the story, as well as original characters. Levine's fairy society is a peaceful one, where every fairy and sparrow man (male fairy) has a specific "talent", a job that they instinctively know how to do perfectly, and love. Some of the new characters introduced include Rani (named for Levine's sister), a water-talent fairy; Vidia, a fast-flying-talent fairy (the mean fairy); and Prilla, a fairy whose talent seems to have fallen out of her on her way to Fairy Haven. She wrote two sequels to this book: Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand (2007) and ''Fairies and the Quest for Never Land (2010).

She credits her parents David and Sylvia for her creative streak. Her father, upon whom much of the story Dave at Night is based, owned a commercial art studio, and her mother was a teacher who wrote plays for her students to perform.