Author Guide · Lisanne Swart
Books Written by Chanel Miller
Chanel Miller has written three books. In 2015, as a 22-year-old known publicly only as “Emily Doe,” she was sexually assaulted on Stanford’s campus; her 2016 victim impact statement, read aloud in court and later published in full by BuzzFeed News, was viewed tens of millions of times and became a turning point in public conversation about campus assault and lenient sentencing. Three years later, she reclaimed her name and published Know My Name, a memoir that’s less about the assault itself than about the specific, grinding process of being reduced to a case number and having to fight to become a person again. Since then she’s turned to fiction for young readers, writing two acclaimed middle grade novels — Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All and The Moon Without Stars — both drawing on her own line drawings and a close attention to what it feels like to lose and rebuild a sense of self.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 books · Memoir · Middle Grade · Identity · Updated August 2026 · ~8 min read
Quick answer
Chanel Miller has written three books: Know My Name (2019), a memoir about the aftermath of her 2015 sexual assault at Stanford and her time as the anonymous “Emily Doe,” which won the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography; and two middle grade novels, Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All (2024), a Newbery Honor winner, and The Moon Without Stars (2026).
Key facts
- Books written: 3 — Know My Name (2019), Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All (2024), The Moon Without Stars (2026)
- Award: National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, 2020 (Know My Name); Newbery Honor (Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All)
- Background: Also an artist and illustrator, under the name Chanel Miller
- Public turning point: Her 2016 victim impact statement, published in full by BuzzFeed News, was read tens of millions of times
Why trust this list: These are books I’ve read in full. Curated by Lisanne Swart.
In this guide
Know My Name
Miller’s memoir moves beyond the assault itself into the years-long aftermath: the invasive trial process, the specific indignities of being questioned as “Emily Doe” rather than as herself, and the eventual decision to reclaim her name publicly in 2019. The book is widely praised for its prose — sharp, precise, and often unexpectedly funny given the subject matter — alongside its argument about how the legal system treats survivors.
What makes this more than a case-adjacent memoir is that Miller is genuinely, independently a skilled writer, not simply a public figure who wrote a book about something that happened to her. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award specifically for its craft, not just its subject.
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All
Miller’s first children’s book, illustrated with her own black-and-white line drawings, is a middle grade novel that won a Newbery Honor and became an instant New York Times bestseller. It was also a TODAY show Read with Jenna Jr. selection and a Good Housekeeping Best Kids’ Book Award winner.
Coming after the gravity of Know My Name, this pivot into children’s fiction shows a different register of the same attentiveness — Miller has said she’d always dreamed of writing and illustrating for young readers, and the Newbery Honor recognizes that this wasn’t a side project but a genuine second calling.
The Moon Without Stars
Miller’s second middle grade novel follows Luna, a seventh grader who gets swept into a popular group after one of her zines takes off, and has to decide how much of herself she’s willing to compromise to stay there. Featuring Miller’s signature line drawings, it became an instant New York Times bestseller and a starred Kirkus review called it a modern classic in the making.
Read alongside Magnolia Wu, this confirms Miller as a genuine middle grade voice rather than a one-off: both books share her interest in kids working out who they are under social pressure, just as Know My Name traced an adult version of the same question.
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