Neil Shusterman: biography, best books, creativity and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Popular American writer Neil Shusterman was born on November 12, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York.

Librarian, teacher and Jaws

He was the slowest reader in third grade. But he was lucky. He was taken under the wing of a school librarian and managed to instill a love of reading. He became an avid reader. White's "Charlotte's Web" made such a strong impression on him that he, an eight-year-old boy, plucked up the courage and wrote to the author with a proposal in a letter about its continuation.

As a boy, he was very fond of different stories. Roald Dahl's fairy tale "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" made Neal think for the first time that a person can invent his own fantasy world out of nowhere, and he realized that he wants to do it too.

He made a lot of plans. Whatever he wanted to be: a writer and an actor, a doctor and an artist, an architect and a director, even a rock star… and preferably at the same time. But he remembered the words of his teacher that one cannot do everything at once, that in this case he would not be a master in everything.

It was the ninth grade English teacher's suggestion to write a short story that changed hima life. He was inspired to write the story by the film Jaws, which was released at the time.

It was then that he first felt like a writer, and this interest became higher than all others in his life.

Be a writer

At the age of 16, the family moved to live in Mexico City. There he studied for the last two years of school. He believed that the experience of living in different countries allowed him to look at life with a fresh look, to believe in himself, which would be impossible in other circumstances.

After graduating from the University of California, Irvine, he received two degrees in psychology and theater. Here he got his first writing experience, writing a humorous column in his department's newspaper, which had a very playful title. The Anonymous Nil Shusterman column made fun of everything from parking to political issues. The column, it must be said, was popular. Four years of authorship experience confirmed him in choosing his own business.

A year after graduating from college, he signed his first contract to write a film script.

Career

For more than twenty years millions of readers have known the novelist, screenwriter, television author Neil Shusterman. His books occupy the minds of teenagers and their parents all over the world. From his pen came novels and science fiction series, essays, stories and poems, even games.

Most of his work is aimed at a teenage audience. He is deeply convinced that thisAge is decisive in the life of any person. The events that happen to a teenager largely determine what he will become later, in adulthood.

Neil Shusterman's books have won numerous awards. They are marked by the International Reading Association, the American Library Association. Since receiving his first award in 1988, he has written dozens of books, each a top ten!

Some of his books are humorous and aimed at younger teenagers. But fantasy and dark retellings of famous myths are intended for older teenagers.

Neil is convinced that you need to write in a variety of formats. It's like a challenge to yourself. This is a test of your writing ability.

His talent is multifaceted: writing, directing, writing music and plays, creating games for teenagers, oratory.

Degrees in psychology and theater allow Neal to provide a completely unique approach to presentation.

Currently, he is actively collaborating with television and film studios, writing scripts for TV shows (for example, for the Disney Channel), movies and series ("Goosebumps").

In addition, he travels a lot around the country, meets with schoolchildren and students, with his readers.

Neil Shusterman: reviews, his books in Russia

Russian reader discovered this most popular writer in the world not so long ago. With the advent of his books translated into Russian, the number of admirers increased. Reviews about the work of this writer are mostly positive. Everyone talks about his special worldview. It is enough just to get acquainted with his work, hear the opinions of people, and you will certainly want to read one, then another, then a third, and then all the books of this wonderful author. Read or listen, because there are also excellent audiobooks.

How masterpieces are born

Neil Shusterman himself told about this in one of his interviews.

Often, in order to get started, he has to go to the trick and convince himself that the whole story has already formed in his head. Why the trick? Yes, because rarely everything goes exactly as planned.

He writes each chapter by hand first. Writes and rewrites. By the time he starts typing chapters into the computer, this is a completely different option. So it turns out three different projects. Now it's time for a big revision, when changes are made, problems are fixed and the fourth project appears.

The book needs to lie down for a while, a month or so. And after another revision, the fifth version of the book can be shown to people. The sixth will be made taking into account the comments received, and it is he who is sent to the publisher. It may need more work, but the book will finally see the light of day.

By the way, many of the characters in his works are named after real people. Often the writer turns to his fans and admirers for names and at the same time briefly describes the nature of the character, his role in the future book.

Neil Schusterman's masterpieces are so hard to come by.

Family

A father of many children and a great family man. Currently lives in Southern California with four children, two sons and two daughters. They are a constant source of inspiration for him.

They most often become the first readers of his books. He takes their comments very seriously, especially valuable to him, because he writes for people like his children. And also because they honestly say what they think without fear. True, the growing number of adult admirers of his definitely pleases and inspires him.

Brenden and Challenger Deep

All of Neil Shusterman's books are, of course, precious and as important to him as children. But one of them is much closer than the rest to his heart. This is Challenger Deep - a lyrical, touching novel based on the story of one of his sons, suffering from schizoaffective disorder since his school years, and the idea of the name of which is also suggested by the boy.

It all started with Brendan's fascination with the ocean in second grade. It was then that Neil noted for himself that such a beautiful and sonorous name of the deepest place in the Mariana Trench could be a great title for a book, but there was no worthy story.

In addition, by the 9th grade, the boy started having problems that came with anxiety, which then turned into delirium with paranoia and hallucinations. According to him, even street signs had their own conversation with him. The child had to be hospitalized. The diagnoses changed, but it was clear that there was a serious mental illness. The family was devastated and triedhelp the child in every possible way.

But the words of a teenager addressed to his father that he feels like at the bottom of the ocean, and no one can hear his cry for help, became an impetus for Neil. He understood that Challenger Deep should be there, that the family and relatives should understand the child in order to be together to help him.

And later, when, finally, with the help of medicines, doctors and the boy’s own will, the disease was brought under control, it was with him that the father consulted whether such a book was needed, would it be good if it was written about mental illness, if he uses his, Brenden's, experience. And with the approval of his son last year, 2015, the book saw the light of day. Neil dedicated it to the doctor who had worked so hard to save his son's life. In addition, he used in it drawings by Branden, created by him during the period of exacerbation.

It was his son who offered to read the first draft of the book and express his suggestions. He wanted to be sure that those who go through this would understand that he sympathizes with them, that the book will help, give strength and dignity to go through all the trials. Neil is convinced that without compassion a person cannot be a person, that mental illness must be spoken aloud and openly, discarding the feeling of shame. First of all, because every third American family is faced with this and perceives such a misfortune in the family as a stain. And this is a disease. A man should be proud to be a man.

About some masterpieces

About my booksNeil says that he does not give answers in them, but only asks questions.

What other world masterpiece has created Neil Shusterman? The Runaways is the author's most famous novel. The world he invented may even seem immoral. Can there be anything worse and more terrible for humanity than the monstrous law on "retrospective abortion"? When a child is doomed to death by the closest and dearest people, his parents, it's terrible. If you behave badly, they will not put you in a corner, but they will give you to the organs! This is a strong book. And emotions are just running high. And you unwittingly draw parallels with today's life. Haven't you heard about the facts of the sale of children, your own or others? Haven't you heard rumors about stolen and not found children and how they become living donors for those who are willing to pay well? And it's already scary because it's not such a fantasy after all.

All readers talk about some special world that Neil Shusterman creates in his works. "Interworld" is a book about dead children who find themselves in a strange world between life and death, which exists in parallel with the real one. And everything in this world is like in the real one: intrigues, struggle for power, crimes, exploits, love and adventures. You can just read. But over time, the realization comes that the loop of repetitions for gaping afterlights is familiar to you too. And you yourself now and then live on the machine: home, work, home, bed … the same loop. And anyone can become nothing, like everyone else, lose himself, like the afterlife. And the book is no longer perceived as a work for teenagers, but as a serious deep novel.

The book "Interworld" became the first in the cycle "Land of Lost Souls". Next saw the light of the novel "Backwoods". Neil Shusterman ended the famous trilogy with World Found. All these books are filled with deep meaning. They are able in some way to influence the subconscious of a person, change his worldview.

About fifty books, each of which has found many admirers. Maybe you will discover the world of Neil Shusterman.