Carolyn Cohagan began her writing career as a stand-up comic, performing in comedy clubs all over the world, including New York, Chicago, London, and Amsterdam. After studying physical theater at the Ecole International de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, she began to write and perform one-woman shows, traveling to theater festivals from Edinburgh to Adelaide. In Los Angeles, Carolyn wrote and directed short films, worked for Slamdance and the LA Film Festival and was a red carpet host for the Independent Spirit Awards.

Carolyn’s first novel, The Lost Children, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2010, became part of the Scholastic Book Club in 2011, and was nominated for a Massachusetts Children’s Book Award in 2014.

In the fall of 2013, Carolyn traveled to Rwanda as an Arts Envoy working for the U.S. State Department. She taught a vast array of writing workshops, including Teaching Critical Analysis, Using the Three Act Structure in Screenwriting, and How to Use Storytelling in the Classroom.

She has a BA in Art History from Barnard and an MA in Writing from USC. Carolyn has recently returned to her hometown of Austin where she founded Girls With Pens, a creative writing organization for girls 9-17.