Anna Waggener

Anna Waggener writes fantasy shaped by family conflict and imagined thresholds. Her debut novel emerged from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards novel competition. Grim was published by Scholastic Press in 2012 after Waggener won the program’s novel-writing category in 2008. The story follows two connected paths: Erika awakens after a car crash in a realm between earthly life and eternity, while Shawn tries to protect his sisters as they move through a haunted wood. Those strands allow Waggener to examine family obligation through a setting where myth takes physical form. Scholastic classified the book as juvenile fantasy for readers from roughly seventh grade upward, and contemporary coverage also described its blend of fantasy, adventure, and romance. Born in Thailand and educated in Minnesota, Waggener studied English and human rights while developing her fiction. Grim remains the clearest published expression of her interest in imagined worlds where family bonds can support, distort, and redirect individual choices.