Alethea Kontis is a fiction author. She writes teen and young adult books, picture books and speculative fiction for children.Kontis has published over 20 books and 50 short stories. Her first book, "AlphaOops: The Day Z Went First," was published in 2006. Kontis has received the Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Grant, the Scribe Award, the Garden State Teen Book Award, and, twice, the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award.Kontis also narrates stories for multiple online magazines and contributes regular book reviews to NPR.Kontis received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina.