| Intro | American novelist |
| Is |
Writer Novelist Children’s writer Screenwriter |
| From | United States of America |
| Type |
Film, TV, Stage & Radio Literature |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 12 November 1962, Brooklyn |
| Age: | 57 years |
Neal Shusterman (born November 12, 1962) is an American writer of young-adult fiction. He won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for Challenger Deep.
Early life
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 that 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.
He finished high school there at the American School Foundation 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.
Career
After college, Shusterman worked 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.
Shusterman has received numerous honors for his books, including the National Book Award in 2015 for his novel Challenger Deep, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the 2008 California Young Reader Medal for The Schwa Was Here. He served as a judge for the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2012. His novels Downsiders and Full Tilt have each won over 20 awards. Unwind has won more than 30 awards, and is now in development with Constantin Films as a feature film series. His novel “Scythe” is in development with Universal as a feature film.
Shusterman has also written for TV, including the Original Disney Channel movie Pixel Perfect, as well as episodes of Goosebumps and Animorphs. He is also adapting his novel “Challenger Deep” for 20th Century Fox.
Shusterman was invited by Orson Scott Card to write novels parallel to Ender’s Game about other characters from the series, but schedules didn’t permit, and Card wrote Ender’s Shadow and the subsequent series himself.
Awards
- 2005 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award.
- 2008 California Young Reader Medal for The Schwa Was Here.
- 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for Challenger Deep.
- “Past Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Winners”. Horn Book Magazine. May 30, 2011. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
- “Winners”. CYRM. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
- “2015 National Book Award Winner, Young People’s Literature”. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
- Alter, Alexandra (19 November 2015). “Ta-Nehisi Coates Wins National Book Award”. The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2015.