Main content

Claribel Ortega ’10

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Claribel A. Ortega ’10 (journalism) is a former reporter who writes middle-grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage.

Ortega’s NYT Bestselling debut middle-grade novel Ghost Squad is being made into a feature film. Her latest book, Witchlings (Scholastic), was an Instant NYT and #1 Indie Bestseller. Her graphic novel Frizzy with Rose Bousamra was winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children’s Text and an Indie Bestseller.

When she’s not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she’s co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club. Ortega is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America, and Deadline.

You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok @Claribel_Ortega, and on Twitch as Radbunnie.

—Excerpted from claribelortega,com


Goodreads.com describes Ghost Squad as “Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.”


At Purchase, Ortega got her start editing the back page of the now-defunct Purchase Indy.