Born in Toronto, Canada, Mimi Cross is an author, singer, and songwriter who grew up in New Jersey by the beach. She received a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and an MA in Music Education from NYU with an emphasis on vocal jazz. She is an experienced performer, and worked briefly in the music industry. ​“Mimi fuses delicacy and power, heart and gut. Her writing and singing are inspiring and evocative.”--Grammy award winning artist Rosanne CashA two time Asbury Music Award winner, Mimi has shared the bill with such luminaries as Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Lauryn Hill, Loudon Wainwright, and Jill Sobule. She enjoys performing for the benefit of others, and has played shows with many Jersey Shore musicians including Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. Her songs have been used in independent films and TV shows.Mimi runs songwriting classes and creative writing classes through several arts organizations, and she is a 200+ hour certified yoga instructor as well as the creator of Body of Writing, a practice that adds an additional dimension to the body-mind-spirit discipline of yoga: story. Body of Writing is designed to help people deepen their creativity and discover their stories through meditation, movement, and writing. Mimi lives with her son and a Siberian cat nicknamed The Dark Knight. Her debut YA Before Goodbye was an RWA Rita Award finalist for Best First Book. Her second novel, Shining Sea is a fantasy/romance that features a very human seventeen-year-old budding singer-songwriter with the voice of a mythological Siren.