Neal Shusterman

Neal Shusterman
Born	Neal Shusterman November 12, 1962 (1962-11-12) (age 49) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
storyman.com

Neal Shusterman (born November 12, 1962) is a popular and successful American author of Young Adult literature.

Shusterman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Even from a young age, Shusterman was an avid reader. At age 8, Shusterman sent a letter to E. B. White, informing him that he believed Charlotte's Web needed a sequel. White replied, stating he thought the book was fine as it was, requiring no sequel, but encouraged Shusterman to continue writing. At age 16, Shusterman and his family moved to Mexico City.^[1] He finished high school there and quotes, "Having an international experience changed my life, giving me a fresh perspective on the world, and a sense of confidence I might not have otherwise." He attended the University of California, Irvine, where he double-majored in psychology and theater, and was also on the varsity swim team. During his years there, he wrote a popular humor column for the school paper. After college, he got a job as an assistant at Irvin Arthur Associates, a talent agency in Los Angeles, where Lloyd Segan became his agent. Within a year, Shusterman had his first book deal, and a screenwriting job. He currently lives in Southern California with his four children.^[2]

Shusterman won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for The Schwa Was Here, and most recently the book won the 2008 California Young Reader Medal. Some of his other novels include The Dark Side of Nowhere, Red Rider's Hood, What Daddy Did, The Shadow Club, The Shadow Club Rising, The Eyes of Kid Midas, and the Star Shards Chronicles trilogy: Scorpion Shards, Thief of Souls, and Shattered Sky. His novels Downsiders and Full Tilt, have each won over 20 awards. One of his more recent novels is Everlost, which he is now adapting for a feature film for Universal Studios. Shusterman's latest novels are Unwind (2007) and Antsy Does Time (2008), which is a sequel to his book The Schwa was Here. His most recent release is Everwild (2009) which is the sequel to Everlost, and is the second book of the Skinjacker Trilogy.^[3] He can be found on Facebook and Twitter as simply "nealshusterman."

Shusterman has also written for TV, including the Original Disney Channel movie Pixel Perfect, as well as episodes of Goosebumps and Animorphs.^[2]

Shusterman was invited by Orson Scott Card to write novels parallel to Ender's Game about other characters from the series, but eventually Card decided to use the idea himself, and wrote Ender's Shadow and the following series.^[4]

References

1. ^ Gale, Thomas. "Neal Shusterman Biography". storyman.com. Self published. http://www.bookrags.com/biography/neal-shusterman-aya/. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Shusterman, Neal. "Neal Shusterman: Bio". storyman.com. Self published. http://www.storyman.com/bio/. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
3. ^ Shusterman, Neal. "Neal Shusterman: News". storyman.com. Self published. http://www.storyman.com/news/. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
4. ^ Card himself describes the origins of the idea for Ender's Shadow and Shusterman's [lack of] involvement in the Foreword of some editions of Ender's Shadow, including ISBN 978-0-7653-4240-9)

External links

• Bio page at Neal Shusterman's Official website
• Neal Shusterman's MySpace page
• Neal Shusterman's Website

Persondata
Name	Shusterman, Neal
Alternative names
Short description	Novelist
Date of birth	12 November 1962 (1962-11-12) (age 49)
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York, USA
Date of death
Place of death