Mackenzi Lee

Mackenzi Lee (born Mackenzie Van Engelenhoven) is a Young Adult novelist. Her debut novel, This Monstrous Thing, won the PEN-New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. She was also a finalist for two Whitney Awards. Her second novel, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, was a New York Times bestseller, an ABA bestseller, a #1 Indie Next Pick, and earned five starred reviews.

Marvel contracted with her to write three historical fiction books that feature Marvel antiheroes. Her first, Loki: Where Mischief Lies, debuted in 2019. In an interview with the Deseret News, she said, ““I don’t think anyone is born good or bad or predestined for something — it’s our life experiences that shape us and bring out different characteristics in us. Thinking of what had to happen to Loki as a young person in order for him to become the older version of himself we’ve seen previously in Marvel was the main inspiration.”[1] She also said:

I love YA fiction because it’s all about young people deciding what kind of adult they are going to be,” Lee said, “And getting to write about that moment in the life of one of the most iconic characters in the Marvel Universe was such a lucky thing to get to do.

Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in history and an MFA from Simmons College in writing for children and young adults. She was an intern at the Friend, a publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which she is a member. She also interned at NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me.