ate DiCamillo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, raised in Florida, and currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her widely-praised books for children include: Because of Winn-Dixie (a Newbery Honor Book), The Tiger Rising (a National Book Award finalist), The Tale of Despereaux (a Newbery Medal Book), the New York Times bestselling Mercy Watson series, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (a #1 New York Times Bestseller), Great Joy (a New York Times best selling picture book), her second picture book, Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken, and most recently, Kate's fifth middle-grade novel, The Magician's Elephant, published by Candlewick Press in Fall 2009. Upcoming projects include Bink and Gollie, written in collaboration with Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile, coming in September 2010, also from Candlewick Press. 

The feature film inspired by The Tale of Despereaux reached theaters world-wide in December 2008. The film rights to The Magician's Elephant were sold to Julia Pistor at Fox 2000, executive producer of Charlotte's Web and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

In addition to writing, Kate sponsors the Herman W. Block Memorial Scholarship for the Hamline MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.