Gary D. Schmidt
Gary D. Schmidt is the author of more than
fifteen books for children and young adults, including The Wednesday Wars, a 2008 Newbery Honor Award winner, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy,
which won a Newbery Honor award and a Michael L. Printz Honor award in 2005.
His novel, Trouble, came out in
spring 2008, and Okay for Now in
2012—becoming a National Book Award Finalist. In God’s Hands, a picture book co-authored with Rabbi Lawrence
Kushner, was a runner-up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award. His most
recent picture book is The Rose in the
Desert: The Story of Martin de
Porres.
In addition to
multiple “Best Book” lists, his work has been given a Horn Book Honor award and
a Blue Ribbon award by the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books. He has
also authored or co-authored numerous textbooks, scholarly and academic books
(including biographies of Katherine Paterson and Robert McCloskey), articles,
and book reviews.
In 1985 he received his Ph.D. in medieval languages and
literature from the University of Illinois. He is a professor in the English
department at Calvin College and lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan, with his
wife and six children. Gary is currently working on a companion to The Wednesday Wars, and is looking
forward to this fall’s publication of his first fantasy, What Came from the Stars.
Read more about Gary as an advisor