Mackenzi Lee (born Mackenzie Van Engelenhoven)[1] is an American author of books for children and young adults. She writes both fiction and non-fiction about topics including sexuality and the role of women throughout history.[2]
Lee's first book, 2015's This Monstrous Thing, was a retelling of Frankenstein and earned Lee the Susan P. Bloom Children's Book Discovery Award. In the promotional period for this book, she began posting on Twitter under the hashtag #BygoneBadassBroads, sharing biographies of notable women beginning with Mary Shelley. This project grew in popularity, and in 2018, Lee published Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World.[2][4]
Her second novel, entitled The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, was a New York Times Best Seller and earned a Stonewall Book Award for its portrayal of a bisexual young man in 18th-century Europe. This novel led to a series of books featuring the Montague siblings and a diverse set of characters whose struggles are presented in an era that didn't necessarily respect diversity.[3]
She has contracted with Marvel to write three historical fiction books featuring Marvel antiheroes, beginning with a story about Loki out in September 2019 under the title Loki: Where Mischief Lies.[5]
