Lauren Gibaldi

Lauren Gibaldi places friendship, family expectations, and creative ambition at the heart of contemporary teen fiction. Autofocus follows Maude, a high-school photographer who travels to Tallahassee while searching for information about the birth mother she never knew. The investigation complicates her friendship with Treena and introduces Bennett, but its central question concerns whether inherited stories determine a person’s future. HarperTeen issued Autofocus in 2016. This Tiny Perfect World, released by the same imprint in 2018, centers Penny, whose summer theater scholarship unsettles the small-town future planned around her family diner and longtime boyfriend. Gibaldi has worked as a librarian, editor, teacher, bookseller, and circus aerialist, experiences that complement her interest in art and performance. Across both novels, travel into a temporary creative setting pushes a young woman to reconsider a familiar life. Autofocus uses photography for that inquiry, while This Tiny Perfect World uses theater and the competing pull of home and possibility.