How to Write Your Own Novel Kit with author Lewis Buzbee (ages 9-13)

Lewis Buzbee is a fourth generation Californian. He began writing at the unripe age of 15, after reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and things haven’t changed much since. He has worked as a dishwasher, a bookseller, a publisher, a caterer, a bartender, and as a teacher of writing. Since 2000, he’s been on the faculty of the MFA program at the University of San Francisco. He and his wife, the poet Julie Bruck, live with their daughter Maddy in San Francisco, half a block from Golden Gate Park. Buzbee has published three novels for younger readers: Steinbeck’s Ghost, The Haunting of Charles Dickens, and Bridge of Time. His books for adults include The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Blackboard: A Personal History of the Classroom, Fliegelman’s Desire, After the Gold Rush, and First to Leave Before the Sun. And, his poems, essays, and stories have appeared in Harper’s, GQ, New York Times Books Review, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, San Francisco Chronicle, and scores of other magazines and journals.