Cornelia Funke achieved international recognition with the fantasy novel Dragon Rider, which remained on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 78 weeks. Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people of 2005, dubbing her the German J.K. Rowling. Her books include The Thief Lord, a #2 New York Times bestseller, and two BookSense Book of the Year Award winners: Inkheart and Inkspell. Inkdeath is the much-anticipated conclusion of the Inkworld trilogy. Inkheart, a new film starring Helen Mirren and Brendan Fraser, will premiere in 2009.

Introduced by Julie Hepp