On September 5, 1952, in Monterey, California, Paul Fleischman was born to
Albert Sidney, well-known children's author, and Beth Taylor Fleischman. He
attended the University of California, Berkeley, from 1970-72 and graduated
with a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1977. He is married, has two
children, Seth and Dana, and lives in Pacific Grove, California.
Prior to writing full time he worked at a variety of jobs: a carpenter,
bagel baker, bookstore clerk, library aide, and proofreader. He is a member of
the Authors Guild and a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators.
His books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor Book medal
for Graven Images: Three Stories in 1983 and the Newbery Medal in 1989
for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Whirligig received the Golden
Kite Honor Book from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in
1999.
His love of music influences his writing as he blends musical language with
quirky looks at the world. He said of himself in School Library Journal,
"I'm a maker at heart . . . I collect materials, relying heavily on chance. I
sort and discard. I envision possible shapes the book might take.... A
sculpture grows upward; paragraphs grow down."
His writing embraces a variety of themes and styles across varied genres. He
is equally at ease writing poetry for multiple voices as he is writing fantasy,
historical fiction, or contemporary realistic fiction.
He grew up in Santa Monica, California, hearing his father's stories as they
came out of his typewriter. He said in School Library Journal, "I was
exposed to books, but was not a reader and certainly had no plans to be a
writer." He and his sisters spent their time exploring the beach town where
they lived, riding their bicycles up and down every street and alley. Reading
for pleasure did not enter his life until high school when he discovered it on
his own. He started reading adult books, all kinds of things, like Grapes of
Wrath, Mark Twain, Gogol, and Russian novels. It was the same with music.
He discovered classical music in high school and devoured the classical
collection at the Santa Monica Public Library.
Just prior to graduation from college in 1977, he was searching for an
occupation. He knew his father had made a living at writing and he had grown up
in his father's house. He had absorbed a great deal about the craft, of
writing. He sat down and wrote The Birthday Tree.
From that beginning he has grown as a writer. In his Newbery acceptance
speech in 1989 he stated, "I write only a page or so a day. After several books
it dawned on me that this was because I was writing prose that scanned,
something that makes for slow progress... .All my prose is written in 4/4
time." He has a passion for music. He usually writes Monday through Friday from
morning until dinner, and sometimes at night. He does not usually write on the
weekends and his writing day is shortened when he picks up his children from
school and their activities. When he is in a book, he wants to get it done.
When one is finished, he is trying to get another going. It takes many hours to
write a book. He works completely freelance which means he never signs
contracts ahead of time. He told an interviewer for an article in Indiana
Media Journal,
I'm a weather vane. I point where my interests point me. Lately, I've rediscovered the modern world. I'm setting...
books in the present day, which is new for me.
Now, I'm doing some adult fiction.... That's a whole new world for me, and
that's great. That's what I like about writing; the variety. The chance not to
do the same thing in every book, but to do something very different. Even
things that nobody's done. Those are the ones that excite me the most.
The joy and pleasure of making something, building something, rather than
awards and money motivate Fleischman to continue writing. He loves working with
words. "It is pleasurable. It doesn't drain me, it fills me with energy. I like
to make things . . . I really write for myself, out of my own interests. Out of
my own life, which I transform, turn upside down and inside out, and put into
books . . . I'm writing out of my own life."
He also has a love affair for the past, which he credits to living in a
200-year-old house in the New Hampshire woods. He says none of his books would
have been written had he not lived in that house which was a totally
serendipitous event.
