Bruce Coville

Bruce Coville is an American author of children's and young adult novels. He was born in Syracuse, New York and lives there currently; he has spent most of his life there, leaving to attend Duke University and then to live in New York City.

As a child, Coville was an avid reader. Mary Poppins, Dr. Dolittle, and children's serials such as Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys were among his favorite books. He discovered his passion for writing in the sixth grade, and at seventeen, began to pursue writing seriously.

Before he was able to support himself as a writer, Coville worked a variety of jobs, including toymaking, gravedigging, and finally teaching at an elementary school.

His first published story was The Foolish Giant. He is most famous for his Unicorn Chronicles series, My Teacher is an Alien, Aliens Ate My Homework, and Magic Shop series. Other lesser-known series include: Space Brat, Camp Haunted Hills, I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, and The A.I. Gang.

The Sixth Grade Alien series was illustrated by Tony Sansevero, and was eventually the basis for a television series on Fox Family in the United States and YTV in Canada.

Coville has also written picture books, retellings of William Shakespeare, and three children's plays - The Dragonslayers, Out of the Blue, and It's Midnight, Do You Know Where Your Toys Are?, all musicals. He also co-wrote the young-adult novel Armageddon Summer with Jane Yolen.

He is the founder of Full Cast Audio, an audio book company producing unabridged recordings of children's and young adult books, using full casts rather than solo readers. Authors who have worked with FCA include Elizabeth Winthrop, James Howe, and Tamora Pierce, who wrote an original novel called Melting Stones specifically for the company to record before the print edition appeared.

When he was nineteen, Coville married neighboring artist Katherine Dietz. They have two sons and a daughter: Orion, born in 1970, Cara, born in 1975, and Adam, born in 1981. Coville and Dietz separated for a number of years, but are now living and working together again.

Website: http://www.brucecoville.com/