CHRIS CRUTCHER

“I have forever been intrigued by the extremes of the human condition, the remarkable juxtaposition of the ghastly and the glorious.” — Chris Crutcher

Chris Crutcher's years as teacher, then director, of a K-12 alternative school in Oakland, California through the nineteen-seventies, and his subsequent twenty-odd years as a therapist specializing in child abuse and neglect, inform his thirteen novels and two collections of short stories. He writes honestly about real issues facing teenagers today: making it through school, competing in sports, handling rejection and failure, and dealing with parents.

Crutcher has won three lifetime achievement awards for the body of his work: the Margaret A. Edwards Award, the ALAN Award, and two Intellectual Freedom awards, one from the National Council for Teachers of English and the other from the National Coalition Against Censorship. Five of Crutcher’s books have appeared on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 Best Books for Teens of the Twentieth Century.

Author Website: CHRIS CRUTCHER