Neil Gaiman and goth-cabaret singer Amanda Palmer are engaged

Neil Gaiman in 2006. / Star Tribune photo by Joel Koyama

British-born writer Neil ("Coraline") Gaiman who lives in western Wisconsin, has reportedly become engaged to Amanda Palmer of the punk-cabaret act Dresden Dolls.

Amanda Palmer

According to a lengthy profile in the Jan. 25 issue of The New Yorker, Gaiman proposed to Palmer on New Year's Day, "drawing a ring on her finger with a Sharpie." Gaiman's marriage to Minneapolis native Mary McGrath ended in divorce in 2008. The couple have three children. The New Yorker story, by Dana Goodyear, also reports that Gaiman's father, a Jew of Polish descent, later in life became a higher-up in the Church of Scientology, and that two sisters are also Scientologists. Gaiman, who has won multiple Hugo Awards as well as a Newbery Medal for outstanding young-adult fiction and graphic novels, has lived in Wisconsin for 20 years. In 2005 the Star Tribune named him as one of its Artists of the Year. Gaiman, 49, and Palmer, 33, attended the Golden Globe Awards together on Jan 17. They announced their engagement online at Gaiman's blog. The animated feature "Coraline," based on Gaiman's book of the same title, opened in 2009 and grossed more than $123 million at theaters worldwide.