Garth Stein’s newest novel is A Sudden Light, published by Simon and Schuster in September, 2014.  He is the author of three previous novels:  Raven Stole the Moon, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, and The Art of Racing in the Rain.  The Art of Racing in the Rain has sold more than 4 million copies in 35 languages, and spent more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list.  It has inspired a Young Reader edition as well as a children’s picture book adaptation (2014), a stage adaptation by Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, and is currently in development with Universal Studios for a major motion picture.

Garth is also the author of a full-length play, Brother Jones, which had its premiere in Los Angeles at Theater of Angels in 2005, and was described as “brimming with intensity,” by The Los Angeles Weekly.  Brother Jones served as inspiration for Garth’s latest novel, A Sudden Light.

Before turning to writing full-time, Garth was a documentary filmmaker who directed, edited, and/or produced several award-winning films, including The Lunch Date and The Last Party (starring Robert Downey, Jr)

Garth is co-founder of Seattle7Writers, a non-profit organization dedicated to energizing readers and writers and their communities by providing funding, programming, donations of free books to those in need, and generally inspiring enthusiasm for reading.  In 2010, The Novel: Live!, a Seattle7Writers event conceived by Garth, brought 36 authors together to write a novel in 6 days before a live audience at Seattle’s Richard Hugo House.  The writing marathon was simulcast on the Internet, drawing a global audience.  Designed as an entertaining fundraiser with an educational component, the result of TN:L! was published by Open Road Media in 2011 as Hotel Angeline:  A Novel in 36 Voices, and continues to sell as an e-book and paperback.  One hundred percent of the authors’ proceeds is donated to literacy.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Seattle, Garth’s ancestry is diverse: his mother, a native of Alaska, is of Tlingit Indian and Irish descent; his father, a Brooklyn native, is the child of Jewish emigrants from Austria. After spending his childhood in Seattle and then living in New York City for 18 years, Garth returned to Seattle in 2001, and lives there currently with his wife, three sons, and their dog, Comet.