Charlie Nicholes Holmberg (born April 4, 1988) is an American fantasy writer best known for The Paper Magician series.
She is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English in 2010.
[6] She attended Brigham Young University (BYU), majoring in English (with a focus on creative writing) and minoring in editing.
The Master Magician was featured as a Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Book (under fiction e-books) in June 2015.
[19][20] Holmberg has also written seven standalone novels,[3] including The Hanging City, which was a finalist in the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards in the romantasy category.
[4] Holmberg then came up with the concept for another standalone novel, The Fifth Doll (2017), while "preparing a class on magic systems for the LDStorymakers conference".
[9] Veins of Gold made Barnes & Noble's list of "20 Favorite Indie Books of 2018" for its "hidden magic and ... historical western setting".
[27] After being told by her agent that she needed to write another series, Holmberg published her Numina trilogy:[24] Smoke and Summons, Myths and Mortals and Siege and Sacrifice.
[24] She has stated that "sometimes current pop culture trickles into [her] novels", and cited Downton Abbey and Stranger Things as examples.
[22] Holmberg has since added the Spellbreaker and Star Mother duologies to her published works and in 2024, released Boy of Chaotic Making, the third installment in the Whimbrel House series.
[3] She enjoys reading fantasy novels by Brandon Sanderson, Juliet Marillier, Rosamund Hodge, Robert Jordan, and Martine Leavitt.