Jack Gantos

Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh to construction superintendent John and banker Elizabeth () Gantos. He was raised in South Florida and the Caribbean, and followed his parents to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He got involved in the drug trade there, and ended up in New York City. After serving one and a half years of a six-year sentence he entered college and continued writing, finally publishing his first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. The latest Rotten Ralph book was published in 2014; there are now 20 titles in the series for young readers. Gantos has written for readers of all ages, including the memoir Hole in My Life, published in 2002. During that time he began to work on picture books with Nicole Rubel, a student at the Boston Museum School. Rotten Ralph was the first to be published, by Houghton Mifflin in 1976. Within ten years Gantos and Rubel completed some twenty picture books including two more in the Rotten Ralph series. Meanwhile, Gantos began teaching about writing children's books. He was professor of creative writing and literature (1978–95) at Emerson College in Boston, and a visiting professor at Brown University (1986), University of New Mexico (1993), and Vermont College of Fine Arts (2004). He developed master's degree programs in children's book writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College. ==Awards and honors==

• Best Books for Young Readers citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1976–93, for the "Rotten Ralph" series. • Children's Book Showcase Award, 1977, for Rotten Ralph • Emerson Alumni Award, Emerson College, 1979, for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Writing • Massachusetts Council for the Arts Awards finalist, 1983, 1988 • Gold Key Honors Society Award, 1985, for Creative Excellence • National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1987 • Quarterly West Novella Award, 1989, for X-Rays • Children's Choice citation, International Reading Association, 1990, for ''Rotten Ralph's Show and Tell'' • Batavia Educational Foundation grant, 1991 • West Springfield Arts Council (WESPAC) grant, 1991 • Parents' Choice citation, 1994, for Not So Rotten Ralph • New York Public Library Books for the Teenage, 1997, for ''Jack's Black Book'' • Silver Award, 1999, for Jack on the Tracks • finalist, 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key • Great Stone Face Award, Children's Librarians of New Hampshire, ALANNA Notable Children's Book, NCSS and CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction, and New York Public Library "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing," all 1999, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key • Iowa Teen Award, Iowa Educational Media Association, Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nomination, North Dakota Library Association, and Sasquatch Award nomination, all 2000, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key • Newbery Honor, ALANNA, 2001, for Joey Pigza Loses Control • California Young Reader Medal, 2002, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key • Printz Honor, 2003, for Hole in My Life • Sibert Honor, 2003, for Hole in My Life • National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Creative Writing, m fiction • Newbery Medal, 2012, for Dead End In Norvelt ==Selected works==

Picture books Gantos is the author of dozens of published picture books including about twenty illustrated by Nicole Rubel. Rotten Ralph was the first published book for both creators and the first of about ten in the Rotten Ralph series as of 2012. ;Rotten Ralph series by Gantos and Rubel • Rotten Ralph (Houghton Mifflin, 1976, )introducing the "very, very, nasty cat" • Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, )the latest of about ten • ''Rotten Ralph's Rotten Family'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014, ) Novels Nonfiction • , a memoir • Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop Out and Craft Great Stories (2017) ==Notes==