Markus Zusak | |
---|---|
Born | Markus Frank Zusak 23 June 1975 Sydney, Australia |
Occupation | Writer |
Education | Engadine High School |
Alma mater | University of New South Wales |
Period | 1999–present day |
Notable awards | Margaret A. Edwards Award 2014 |
Spouse | Mika Zusak |
Children | 3 children |
Website | |
zusakbooks |
Markus Zusak (born 23 June 1975) is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger , two novels that became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2014. [1]
Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia. His mother Lisa is originally from Germany and his father Helmut is Austrian. They immigrated to Australia in the late 1950s. [2] [3] Zusak is the youngest of four children and has two sisters and one brother. He attended Engadine High School and briefly returned there to teach English while writing. He studied English and history at the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education.[ citation needed ]
Zusak is the author of six books. His first three books, The Underdog , Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and When Dogs Cry , released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally.
The Messenger (I Am the Messenger in the United States), published in 2002, won the 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award (Older Readers), the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award's Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature, [4] and was a runner-up for the Michael L. Printz Award.
The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has since been translated into more than 40 languages. The Book Thief was adapted into a film of the same name in 2013. In 2014, Zusak delivered a talk called "The Failurist" at TEDxSydney at the Sydney Opera House. It focused on his drafting process and journey to success through writing The Book Thief. [5]
In March 2016 Zusak talked about his then unfinished novel Bridge of Clay. He stated that the book was 90% finished but that, "I'm a completely different person than the person who wrote The Book Thief. And this is also the scary thing—I'm a different person to the one who started Bridge of Clay eight, nine years ago ... I've got to get it done this year, or else I'll probably finally have to set it aside." [6] It was finally released in October 2018.
A TV series based on The Messenger premiered on ABC in 2023. [7] Zusak said his next book would be a "memoir type thing" and not fiction. [7]
In 2006, Zusak received The Sydney Morning Herald 's Young Australian Novelist of the Year Award. In 2014, he won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association (ALA), which annually recognises an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". [1]
Bridge of Clay is a Junior Library Guild selection. [8]
In 2005, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and Publishers Weekly named I Am the Messenger (The Messenger) one of the best children's books of the year.[ citation needed ]
The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It is sponsored by Booklist magazine; administered by the ALA's young-adult division, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); and named for the Topeka, Kansas, school librarian Mike Printz, a long-time active member of YALSA. Up to four worthy runners-up may be designated Honor Books and three or four have been named every year.
Neal Shusterman is an American writer of young adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his book Challenger Deep and his novel, Scythe, was a 2017Michael L. Printz Honor book.
David Almond is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.
The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by the Australian author Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Published in 2005, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 17 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief.
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer best known for the young adult historical novel A Northern Light.
The Messenger, released in the United States as I Am the Messenger, is a 2002 novel by Markus Zusak, and winner of the 2003 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award. The story is written from the perspective of the protagonist, taxi driver Ed Kennedy, whose journey begins after he stops a robbery and receives a playing card in the mail.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of libraries to better serve teens. YALSA administers several awards and sponsors an annual Young Adult Literature Symposium, Teen Read Week, the third week of each October, and Teen Tech Week, the second week of each March. YALSA currently has over 5,200 members. YALSA aims to expand and strengthen library services for teens through advocacy, research, professional development and events.
Craig Silvey is an Australian novelist. Silvey has twice been named one of the Best Young Australian Novelists by The Sydney Morning Herald and has been shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His 2009 second novel was selected by the American Library Association as Best Fiction for Young Adults in their 2012 list, and was made into the movie Jasper Jones in 2017.
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The Underdog (1999) is the first novel by Australian young adult fiction writer Markus Zusak. Along with Fighting Ruben Wolfe and When Dogs Cry, The Underdog was published in the United States in 2011 as part of the anthology Underdogs.
The William C. Morris YA Debut Award is an annual award given to a work of young adult literature by a "first-time author writing for teens". It is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It was named for twentieth-century American publisher William C. Morris, whom YALSA calls an innovator and "an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults".
The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the longtime director of young adult services at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
Bridge of Clay is a 2018 novel by Australian author Markus Zusak. It revolves around five brothers coming to terms with the disappearance of their father.
When Dogs Cry is the third young adult fiction novel written by Australian writer Markus Zusak in the Wolfe family books. It is a stand-alone companion novel (sequel) to his young adult fiction novels Fighting Ruben Wolfe and The Underdog. It was first published in 2001 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty limited. It was published in United States by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press, April 2003 under the title Getting the Girl. Both titles come from the titles of poems in the book.
Margaret Stiefvater is an American writer of young adult fiction. She is best known for her fantasy series The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle.
Fighting Ruben Wolfe is a young adult fiction novel by Markus Zusak. Originally published in Australia by Omnibus in 2000, the first American Hardcover printing was by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press, February, 2001. First soft cover edition was printed in February, 2002. Fighting Ruben Wolfe is the second book featuring brothers Cameron and Ruben Wolfe and their family. The first book is The Underdog and the third book is When Dogs Cry.
Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". She is also the only two-time recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award for Dig (2019) and as editor and contributor to The Collectors: Stories (2023).
Elizabeth Partridge is an American writer, the author of more than a dozen books from young-adult nonfiction to picture books to photography books. Her books include Marching for Freedom, as well the biographies John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, and Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange.
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