DuPrau received a BA in English Literature from Scripps College in Claremont, California. She has been a high school English teacher, an editor for educational publishing companies, a technical writer for Apple Inc. and a freelance writer. On her website and several other online biographies, DuPrau is described as a gardening enthusiast and dog lover. She is also an ice skater, a bird watcher, a meditator, a house builder, a gardener, a piano player and gourmet vegetarian cook. DuPrau has no children. She has two nephews, a niece, and a Cairn Terrier named Ethan, who is fifteen years old as of 2008. On her website, DuPrau writes: I didn't really set out to "be a writer." I just wrote. Reading and writing have always been my favorite things, though for a while I wanted to be a writer and an illustrator. I still have my very first book, which I wrote when I was about five years old. It's called Frosty the Snowman, has five pages, and is illustrated with red and green crayon.[1]
Works
Ember series
The City of Ember (2003) – This story takes place in a sunless, moonless city where the only light comes from electric lamps. As supplies run low and the electrical system starts to fail, the city is headed for disaster. Two children, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, take on the task of finding the way out. The People of Sparks (2004) – The story opens where The City of Ember left off, with the residents of the dying city of Ember joining young heroes Lina and Doon and making their way to a small settlement, where all at first goes well but conflict soon arises. The Prophet of Yonwood (2006) – This is the third novel in the series. However, it is a prequel, rather than a sequel, to the other two books. It is set about fifty years before the Disaster and the establishment of Ember, and approximately three hundred years before the events of The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. The story focuses on a woman's frightening vision of the future and the townspeople's reaction to it. The Diamond of Darkhold (2008) – The Diamond of Darkhold is the next book in the series. It picks up where The People of Sparks left off, during the Emberites' first winter aboveground.The two children must go back to Ember to discover something that was lost and left behind.
Other novels
Car Trouble (2005)
Nonfiction
Adoption: The Facts, Feelings, and Issues of a Double Heritage Cells Cloning Daily Life in the American Colonies The Earth House (1993)