Shusterman was born on November 12, 1962, and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. From a young age, Shusterman was an avid reader. His family is Jewish, and has claimed that he is at least 40-50% North African Sephardic according to a DNA test.[2][3] At the age of 16, Shusterman and his family moved to Mexico City.[4]
He finished high school there at the American School Foundation and is quoted as saying that "Having an international experience changed my life, giving me a fresh perspective on the world, and a sense of confidence I might not have otherwise."[citation needed] He attended the University of California, Irvine, where he double-majored in psychology and theater,[5] and was also on the varsity swim team.[6][7]
Careeredit
After college, Shusterman worked as an assistant at the Irvin Arthur Associates, a talent agency in Los Angeles, where Lloyd Segan became his agent. Within a year, Shusterman had his first book deal and a screenwriting job. He lives in Florida.[8]
He has been nominated four times (twice in 2019; 2020; 2023) in different categories of the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and won the youth jury award in 2019. In March 2023 the German translation of the book Roxy, written with his son Jarrod Shusterman, was nominated by the youth jury.[10]
Fellow author Orson Scott Card invited Shusterman to write novels parallel to Ender's Game about other characters from the series, but schedules didn't permit it, and Card wrote Ender's Shadow and the subsequent series himself.[11]
^"About". Neal Shusterman. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
^"Author Spotlight: Neal Shusterman". www.hercampus.com. November 28, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
^Jensen, Kelly (May 26, 2020). "Neal Shusterman's Inclusive YA and Talking to the Author About Representation". BOOK RIOT. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
^Gale, Thomas. Neal Shusterman Biography. BookRags. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
^Yolsirivat, Nattanont (April 10, 2018). "The Wonderful Neal Shusterman". PantherNation. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
^"Exploring the abyss". UCI News. March 10, 2016. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
^"Scythe :: Kling Memorial Library". Kling Memorial Library. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
^ abShusterman, Neal. "Neal Shusterman: Bio". storyman.com. Self published. Archived from the original on June 20, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
^"Announcing the 2012 PEN Literary Award Recipients". PEN American Center. October 15, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
^"Deutscher Jugendliteratur Preis 2023 Nominierungen" (PDF). Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
^Card himself describes the origins of the idea for Ender's Shadow and Shusterman's early involvement in the foreword of some editions of Ender's Shadow, including ISBN 978-0-7653-4240-9)
^"Past Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Winners". Horn Book Magazine. May 30, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2015.