Emily Arnold McCully was born left-handed in Galesburg, Illinois. She has written and illustrated numerous books for children and young adults, including Mirette on the High Wire, for which she received the Caldecott Medal.

Emily is also the author of A Promising Life: Coming of Age with America and Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business-and Won! (a finalist for the YALSA Best Nonfiction Book of the Year).

She has two grown sons, one grandson, and lives in New York City and Columbia County, New York, where she grows flowers and vegetables.