Kristina McMorris is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of two novellas and eight historical novels, including the million-copy bestseller Sold on a Monday. Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Harper Muse, and Kensington Books, her novels have garnered more than two dozen prestigious awards and nominations, most notably the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, RWA’s RITA® Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction.

At age nine, she began creatively expressing herself when she embarked on a five-year stint as the host of an Emmy® and Ollie award-winning kids’ television program. Being half Japanese, Kristina jokes that she discovered a genetic kinship with the camera early in life and continued to nurture that relationship by acting in many independent and major films while living in Los Angeles.

In 2001, deciding sleep was highly overrated, she compiled hundreds of her grandmother’s favorite recipes for a holiday gift that quickly evolved into a self-published cookbook. With proceeds benefiting the Food Bank, Grandma Jean’s Rainy Day Recipes sold at such stores as Borders and was heavily featured in regional media. It was while gathering information for the book’s biographical section when Kristina happened across the letters her grandfather mailed to his “sweetheart” during his wartime naval service—a collection that years later inspired McMorris to pen her first novel, a WWII love story titled Letters From Home.

Since her debut released in 2011, in addition to her novellas in the anthologies A Winter Wonderland and Grand Central, Kristina’s published works have expanded to include the novels Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, The Pieces We Keep, The Edge of Lost, Sold on a Monday, The Ways We Hide, and When We Had Wings (a collaboration with bestselling authors Susan Meissner and Ariel Lawhon). She also combined forces with her sister, artist Amanda Yoshida, on the picture book Ellie Mae Dreams Big! McMorris’ books have been optioned for TV/film and translated into numerous languages, as well as appeared in compilations by Readers Digest, Doubleday, the Literary Guild, and more.

Her newest historical novel, The Girls of Good Fortune (May 2025), is a captivating tale of resilience and hope that explores the complexity of family and identity, the importance of stories that echo through generations, and the power of strength found beneath the surface.