“Just as the stars above Nantucket charted the course of your great fleets, it is the books in the hands of eager young readers which will chart the course of your community.” Jack Gantos, 2012 NBF Visiting Author

Jack Gantos has won the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for his young adult novel, Dead End in Norvelt. Since the success of his first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976, he has produced books for all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to works for young adults and adults. Joey Pigza Loses Control was a Newbery Honor Book. Hole in My Life is a memoir of his brief career in drug trafficking and his subsequent imprisonment, during which he committed himself to writing. Jack developed the master's degree programs in children's book writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College. He lives with his family in Boston.