Author
Louis Sachar
Notes from Evan Smith
"You might not recognize today's guest as the author of a book that has sold six million copies worldwide. In fact, you might not recognize him period -- either his face or his name -- but if Holes did anything for Louis Sachar, it made him one of fiction's undeniable if unlikely and reluctant celebrities.And if you bumped into him at one of his North Austin haunts, or at his regular bridge game, you surely wouldn't make him out to be a Texan. But though the 51-year-old isn't native to these parts, he's lived here with his wife and daughter for 14 years -- long enough that we can proudly claim his as one of our own. Raised on both coasts, Sachar graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976, where he worked as a classroom aide his senior year. He knew nothing about teaching, but he loved the kids -- and so inspired, that summer he began writing his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School.
To date, that book and two others in the Wayside School series have each sold two million copies. All told, Sachar is the author of more than twenty books, with Holes the breakout blockbuster, but he has high hopes for his latest, a sequel to Holes called Small Steps, set in Austin and centered on the further exploits of Armpit and X-Ray, two of the characters from the original. It's bound to make Sachar even more a phenomenon in the world of young adult fiction that he already is." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 1.26.06
