Jonathon's Biography

In 1966, I was born outside of Frankfurt, Germany, and my family proceeded to relocate 11 times before I was 14 years old. New schools and situations were a constant fixture in my life until, on my 14th birthday, my mother put a stop to our travels and settled us in her family's home in Norfolk, Virginia. Except for art classes, I had, to that point, never enjoyed school. I was embarrassed that I couldn't memorize simple math formulas and that I spelled so poorly. Even though I was actually a pretty good student, it was always a struggle for me.

After high school, I attended The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I began concentrating on art and art history. During my sophomore year, however, I took an adolescent literature course. Entranced by the language and subject matter — and despite my poor spelling — I tested into a fiction-writing class, where I began scratching out a succession of half-decent autobiographical short stories.

After a few of my first pieces were accepted into the college's literary journal, A Gallery of Writing, my focus slowly shifted away from painting and drawing, and towards literature. About that time, a series of tests indicated that I was dyslexic. In a way, I was relieved by the news – to know that it wasn't laziness or stupidity that made school so hard. From then on, my writing really gained confidence and momentum.

After earning my bachelors degree, I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I penned movie reviews at a small-town paper called The Charlottesville Observer and illustrated portions of E.D. Hirsche's critically acclaimed and somewhat controversial Core Knowledge Series of textbooks. In the hours between assignments, I wrote constantly, in an attempt to teach myself fiction.

A year later, I met my future wife and moved to Baltimore, and in 1993 I received my first Maryland State Arts Council fiction-writing award for outstanding literary achievement.

That same year, I started at the Baltimore City Life Museums, where I was responsible for conducting oral history interviews with a vast spectrum of individuals, including well-known personalities and working-class Baltimoreans. My subject matter extended from the civil rights movement to blockbusting, from suburbanization and the fast-food industry to Baltimore's jazz scene.

Upon leaving The Baltimore City Life Museums in 1996, I completed a manuscript titled In the Faded Light of Baltimore, about a boy thrust into an unfamiliar world. That story would become The Reappearance of Sam Webber.

Sam Webber was published in the spring of 1999. Since then, it has received numerous honors and a good deal of critical recognition. In the spring of 2000, it won a prestigious Alex Award. That same April, Candlewick Press purchased paperback writes to the book as well as two more of my novels.

In the spring of 2002, my second novel, DARBY, came out, and it has done very well. Based very, very loosely on a series of oral history interviews I conducted in Marlboro County, South Carolina, the story deals with an aspect of Southern history that has been somewhat lost and another that many would like to lose.

In the fall of 2002, a graphic novel (for ages 14 and up) came out called In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe. Published by Vertigo/DC, it is a unique and fictitious look at Poe's life and what haunted or inspired him to write his chilling fiction. The art is stunning (produced by Steven Parke and Stephen John Phillips) and the overall production has been called "groundbreaking."

In the fall of 2003, Catie & Josephine, a true children's book (ages 6-9), was published by Houghton Mifflin. Another project with Steve Parke, I became interested in it for numerous reasons. I was reading Harry Potter to my daughter, and she was entranced. The problem was, because she was in first grade, the material that she could manage to read by herself wasn't nearly as thrilling as J.K. Rowling's stories. So, Catie and Josephine is a response to that, a book that I hope gets younger readers deeply involved in a story.

In the spring of 2004, The Willoughby Spit Wonder was published. I wrote Willoughby Spit in response to a friend's death, but, despite its sad origin, it is an exploration of love and family and the temporary nature of life. It is also triumphant and hilarious... I hope.

Finally, my new book, King of the Pygmies deals most directly with an issue I consistently write about... mental illness, its devastation and life altering consequences. Already, The Boston Globe has called it "... high and true art." More than that, though, I hope it instills compassion in those who are healthy and provides hope for those who are struggling. As you know, if you've heard me give a talk, I have too often been where they are.

I have received three Maryland State Arts Council, Fiction Writing Awards (1993, 1999, 2002) and frequently give talks and lectures on my books and about dyslexia (having suffered through it and with it myself). Of course, one the coolest things in the world is to visit elementary, middle, and high schools, meet students, and discuss my work. I also enjoy attending conferences and seminars around the country, where I also get to discuss stories with anyone interested.

I live with my beautiful wife, our equally beautiful daughter, and our very young, very funny son in Baltimore, Maryland.

©2001 - 2006 Jonathon Scott Fuqua. All Rights Reserved.