Gary D. Schmidt's most recent novel, The Wednesday Wars, has been garnering excellent reviews. His novel Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy won both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor. His other novels for Clarion are Straw into Gold and Anson's Way. He is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and lives on a farm in Alto. He and his wife have six children.