---

---

JD Donnelly was born on a beach where dolphins played, grew up in an enchanted forest filled with deer, and received a BA in Studio Art and Creative Writing at Hollins University, home to many squirrels.

Her artwork and stories have been featured in literary magazines such as Strangelit and The Cyborg Griffin, collaborative tarot decks, art shows, conventions, and have won numerous awards and prizes. Her block print based on the Grimm’s fairytale “Godfather Death” won a full-sized printing press in a national contest held by Dick Blick and Richeson and Co. in 2013. She also has experience as a dinosaur artisan crafting fossil replicas for museums and private collectors. Earlier drafts of her dragon story earned departmental honors as her Creative Writing thesis, and won a first page contest hosted by the Western PA SCBWI chapter. She also presents creature-creation panels, such as Dragons, Cryptids, and Dinos, OH MY!, and is a member of the Hollins chapters of Sigma Tau Delta, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Western PA Chapter of SCBWI.

When not hip-deep in writing, reading, or printmaking, she dotes on her cuddly rottweilers, wiggly corgi, and squishy axolotl.