Emily Murdoch
Emily is a writer, a poet, and a lover of books. There's never a time she's without a book. Her novel, IF YOU FIND ME, released globally to high praise and critical acclaim through St. Martin's Griffin and Orion/Indigo UK.
IF YOU FIND ME, a Carnegie Medal 2014 longlister and a Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2014 finalist, is also a YALSA BFYA selection of 2014, has earned starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and School Library Journal, was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice for June 2013, an Irish Times Editors’ Pick for 2013, an Editor’s Pick for UK’s The Bookseller 2013, a Booklist Youth Editors' Choice for 2013, and a Booklist Top Ten Pick of 2014.
IF YOU FIND ME has also been nominated and included in numerous state awards/high school master reading lists, amongst those in:
SC
TX
KY
RI
PA
WI
OR
DE
CT
SD
NH
OK
VT
AR
IF YOU FIND ME has been translated and published in Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, Vietnam, and Braille.
When she's not reading or writing, you'll find Emily caring for her horses, dogs and family on a ranch in rural Arizona, where the desert's tranquil beauty and rich wildlife often enter into her poetry and writing.
Emily's other passion is saving equines from slaughter. She uses her writing to raise awareness of this inhumane practice, with the goal of ending the slaughter of America's horses and burros through transport to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.
She provides sanctuary to abused and slaughter-saved equines who dazzle her daily with their gentle gratitude in exchange for security, consistency, food and love.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Emily hopes her penchant for writing will do just that.
All-in-all, she's a lefty in a right-handed world, writing her way through life and smearing ink wherever she writes.
“We make attachments to what's familiar. We find the beauty, even in the lack. That's human. We make the best of what we're given.”
“Wherever you are, I'll be there. Remember?”
“In a sea of trees turned into a sea of total strangers, familiar means everything.”
“I answer her with my silence, understanding the full power of it for the first time. Words are weapons. Weapons are powerful. So are unsaid words. So are unused weapons.”