Gary Blackwood (author)

Gary Blackwood
Born	October 23, 1945 Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Genre	Children's fiction, historical fiction, science fiction
Notable works	The Shakespeare Stealer

Gary Blackwood (born October 23, 1945) is an American author known for The Shakespeare Stealer trilogy.^[1] Born in Meadville, Pennsylvania,^[2] Blackwood sold his first story when he was nineteen.^[3] In 1998, he published The Shakespeare Stealer, a historical fiction novel about an orphan, Widge, who is sent to steal Hamlet from William Shakespeare and The Lord Chamberlain's Men. After it won the 1999 ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Blackwood published two sequels, Shakespeare's Scribe (2000) and Shakespeare's Spy (2003). Since then, he has continued writing historical fiction, such as Around the World in 100 Days (2010), which the Smithsonian named a 2010 Notable Book for Children and Kirkus Book Reviews one of 2010's Best Books for Teens.

Awards

• 1990 Friends of American Writers Best Young Adult Novel for The Dying Sun^[4]
• Ozark Creative Writers Conference 1st prize for Attack of the Mushroom People
• Missouri Scriptworks 1st prize for Dark Horse
• 1999 ALA Best Book for Young Adults for The Shakespeare Stealer^[5]
• 2010 Smithsonian's Notable Books for Children for Around the World in 100 Days^[6]
• 2010 Best Books for Teens by Kirkus Book Reviews for Around the World in 100 Days^[7]

Works

• The Lion and the Unicorn (1983)
• Wild Timothy (1987)
• The Dying Sun (1989)
• Beyond the Door (1991)
• Time Masters (1995)
• The Shakespeare Stealer (1998)
• Moonshine (1999)
• Shakespeare's Scribe (2000)
• The Year of the Hangman (2002)
• Shakespeare's Spy (2003)
• Second Sight (2005)
• The Great Race: The Amazing Round-the-World Auto Race of 1908 (2008)
• Mysterious Messages: A History of Codes and Ciphers (2009)
• Around the World in 100 Days (2010)
• Curiosity (2014) ^[8]

References

1. Pinsent, P. "'Not For An Age But For All Time': The Depiction of Shakespeare In a Selection of Children's Fiction". New Review of Children's Literature and Librarianship, 2004.
2. "Gary L. Blackwood (1945–) Biography – Personal, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Sidelights". Brief Biographies. Net Industries. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
3. "About Gary Blackwood". Penguin Group USA. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
4. "Friends of American Writers Chicago Juvenile Literature Awards". Friends of American Writers Chicago. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
5. "1999 ALA Best Books for Young Adults". American Library Association. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
6. "Smithsonian's 2010 Notable Books for Children". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
7. "2010 Best Books for Teens: The Complete List". Kirkus Book Reviews. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
8. Blackwood, Gary (2014). Curiosity. Hudson Street, New York New York: Penguin Group. p. 313.