Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman (1960 - ) is a wonder of the literary world.  He is a breaker of categories, because his writing is respectful of the possible audience, whether that audience is 8 or 18 or 48 or 98, male or female or somewhere in-between, die-hard fantasy reader or Common Reader or suspicious of words on a page, human or alien or somewhere in-between.  

Gaiman is profoundly interested in myth and fairy tales, archetypes and companions of the id, the vast range of fantastic literature (folktales to ghost stories to pulp thumpers).  He can be funny or precisely delicate or heart-wrenching or sly or terrifying to such an extent that there is no place to hide from the monsters.  He has worked in graphic literature (the Sandman series), children's books, young adult fiction, fantasy, film, and the art of the audiobook.  I mention the audio in particular because he often reads his own works, and once you hear him you are amazed that such an acting ability is from the same writer.