Paul Fleischman

• Name — Paul Fleischman • Born — 1952 • Birthplace — Monterey, California, U.S. • Occupation — Writer, playwright • Education — University of California, Berkeley University of New Mexico • Period — 1979–present • Genre — Children's literature • Parents — Sid Fleischman (father) • Website — paulfleischman.net

Paul Fleischman was born in Monterey, California and raised in Santa Monica, California, the son of children's book author Sid Fleischman. At 19, he took a cross-country bicycle and train trip which ended with him living in a 200-year-old house in New Hampshire. The experience led to his historical fiction dealing with the Puritans' Indian wars, colonial peddlers, Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic, and the Civil War. He attended college at University of California Berkeley and the University of New Mexico. Before writing full-time, he worked as a bagel baker, library shelver, bookstore clerk, and proofreader, the last leading to his grammar watchdog groups Colonwatch and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English.

Fleischman's first books were written while he was still in college, inspired by his reading of folklore. His musical interests are reflected in his collections of poems for two and four speakers, so-called chamber music for speaking voices. Multiple points of view have been a hallmark of his fiction, beginning with Bull Run (1993), one of the first multiple-viewpoint novels published for children. This format was further explored in Seedfolks, the 50-voice aural collage Seek, the seven-plays-in-one Zap, and the joined Cinderella variants in Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal. The importance of history, community, art, and imagination have been frequent themes in his work.

• "Swat Radio", The New Yorker (November 24, 1997) • A Book: Literary & Visual Musings on the Letter A [contributor], The Scribes 8 (1997) • Logomaniacs (2010), play • He Walked Among Us (New York: Argo Navis, 2012), novel • Articles • "Sound and Sense", The Horn Book Magazine (September/October 1986) • "Sid Fleischman", Horn Book (July/August 1987) • "Paul Fleischman", Something About the Author Autobiography Series, Vol. 20, pp. 219–31 • "The Accidental Artist", School Library Journal (March 1999)

• Picture books • The Birthday Tree (1979, 2008) • The Animal Hedge (1983, 2003) • Rondo in C (1988) • Shadow Play (1990) • Time Train (1991) • Weslandia (1999) • Lost: A Story in String (2000) • Sidewalk Circus (2004) • Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella (2007) • The Dunderheads (2009) • The Dunderheads Behind Bars (2012) • The Matchbox Diary (2013) • First Light, First Life: A Worldwide Creation Story (2016) • Fearsome Giant, Fearless Child: A Worldwide Jack and the Beanstalk Story (2019) • The Class With Wings (2024) • Younger fiction • Half-A-Moon Inn (1980) • Finzel The Farsighted (1983), illustrated by Marcia Sewall • Phoebe Danger, Detective (1983) • Short stories • Graven Images (1982, 2006), collection • Coming-and-Going Men (1985), collection • Plays • Mind's Eye (1999) • Zap (2005) • Poetry • I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices (1985) • Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1988) • Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices (2000) • Novels • Path of the Pale Horse (1983) • Rear-View Mirrors (1986) • Saturnalia (1990) • The Borning Room (1991) • Bull Run (1993) • A Fate Totally Worse than Death (1995) • Seedfolks (1997) • Whirligig (1998) • Seek (2001) • Breakout (2003) • Nonfiction • Townsend's Warbler (1992) • Copier Creations (1993) • Dateline: Troy (1996, 2006) • "Interview with a Shrimp", When I Was Your Age, Vol. Two (1999) • Cannibal in the Mirror (2000) • Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014) • No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One (2019) • Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word (2020)