[2] She graduated from Exeter Township Senior High School in 1988,[3] earned a degree in photography at The Art Institute of Philadelphia, and then moved to Dublin, Ireland, where she began writing novels in 1994.

[4] An experienced teacher and presenter, King spends many months of the year traveling the U.S. for school visits, conferences, workshops, and literary festivals.

In her presentations, she often centers topics such as life skills, emotions, bullying, self-esteem, safe relationships, and trauma.

[6] In 2024, King announced the founding of Gracie's House, a nonprofit cofounded with her 17-year-old son Jaxon, which plans to provide safe space summer camps for LGBTQ youth as well as other offerings for the community.

[8] In 2022, she won the American Library Association's Margaret Edwards Award,[9][10] which recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".

[28] Andrew Harwell of HarperCollins Children's Books also favorited Ask the Passengers for 2013, stating, To my mind, King falls in a camp with George Saunders as a writer who flouts conventions of genre and structure out of a sense that the world is full of meaning, but it is also totally crazy.

King's books repeatedly stretch the boundaries of YA fiction, and are always grounded by their unflinching looks at real, imperfect families.

In 2014, the American Library Association selected it for their "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" list.

[57][58] The New York Times,[57] Publishers Weekly,[59] School Library Journal,[57] Shelf Awareness[60] named it one of the best young adult novels of the year.

Charlton-Trujillo, David Levithan, Cory McCarthy, Anna-Marie McLemore, Greg Neri, Jason Reynolds, Randy Ribay, and Jenny Torres Sanchez.