Cherie Bennett
Cherie Bennett emerged in the 1990s as one of the country's most provocative writers on teen themes, and she has become perhaps America's most acclaimed author working in both the arenas of young adult fiction and playwriting. With a demonstrated range from serious literature to pop fiction, and from stage to television to newspaper column, she is an extraordinarily versatile artist as well as an inspiring and funny public speaker and workshop leader.
Her literary fiction includes the multiple award-winning "Life in the Fat Lane" (1998), "Zink" (1999) and most recently "Anne Frank and Me" (2001), which spent three months on the Los Angles Times Children's Best-seller list. "Anne Frank and Me" highlights the dangers of the Internet in promoting intolerance and hate.
As a playwright, Bennett is widely acknowledged to be one of the theater's most innovative young voices, having been produced by many of the nation's leading youth companies. She is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center's biennial New Visions/New Voices competition, and her "Searching for David's Heart," adapted from her 1998 Scholastic novel "Searching," is one of the most honored plays for youth in recent memory.
Most recently, Cherie has been a part of the inaugural writing staff for the new hit WB series "Smallville." She frequently co-writes with her husband, Jeff Gottesfeld. They have collaborated on "Smallville," as well as on such pop teen series as "Teen Angels," "University Hospital" and the "Dawson's Creek" tie-in novels.
