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.

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. Claribel is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America and Deadline.

Claribel’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.

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

Her graphic novel Frizzy with Rose Bousamra was winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children’s Text and an Indie Bestseller.

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

—Excerpted from claribelortega,com

At Purchase, Ortega got her start editing her classmates “often times hilarious ads and ramblings” on the back pagethe back page of the now-defunct The Purchase Independent newspaper.