Nina Schuyler's Biography

I'm thrilled my next novel, THE TRANSLATOR, will be published July, 2013 by Pegasus Books. My first novel, THE PAINTING, was named by the San Francisco Chronicle as a Best Book for 2004 and by MSNBC as a “fearless debut.” It also was nominated for a Northern California Book Award. I earned my undergraduate degree at Stanford University, a law degree at Hastings College of the Law, and a MFA in creative writing at San Francisco State University. I teach creative writing at the University of San Francisco, am the fiction editor for www.ablemuse.com, and review books for The Rumpus and The Children's Book Review.

That’s the short version.

A longer version: For many years, the idea of writing fiction intimidated me. (The Greats staring down with disapproval). As a girl, I read all the time. Scores of photos of me huddled on the couch, a lawn chair, in bed--reading. But I didn’t write. I kept a spy log. My favorite book was Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I spied on my sisters. My mother. My father. I wrote things down. K got a bad grade and stuffed her report card behind her stinky socks. L licks her lips when she talks about chocolate. D’s breath smells like salami. Why? WHY!!!

Eventually I found the classics in BIG PRINT and read them all. Of course when I was older, I had to reread them because I didn’t remember a thing. I became a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, a greeting card designer, a fitness instructor, a painting teacher, a tennis coach, an investment banker, a lawyer, (not in this order), and then, I wrote a short story. Then many short stories and earned an MFA. I wrote a novel that will remain in a drawer and then another novel, The Painting. And now another, The Translator.

I still keep a spy log.

There's a longer version, but it goes on, well, for too long.