Trenton Lee Stewart

Trenton Lee Stewart (born 1970) is an American author best known for the Mysterious Benedict Society series.^[1] Stewart is a graduate of Hendrix College^[2] and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives with his wife and two sons in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Life and career

Trenton Lee Stewart grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas with an interest in writing that began in the third grade. In 1992, Stewart received a bachelor's degree in English from Hendrix College, a small liberal arts school where he met his wife Sarah Beth Estes. Afterwards he attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, receiving an MFA in creative writing in 1995. Stewart remained in Iowa City while his wife completed her Ph.D, after which the family moved to Cincinnati, where Stewart worked at various jobs including a video store, a hotel, and a public library. He also taught at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and at the Miami University of Ohio. Stewart's first novels were published during this time: Flood Summer in 2005 and The Mysterious Benedict Society in 2007, the latter remaining on The New York Times Best Seller list for over a year.^[3]

Stewart and his family then returned to Arkansas where he began writing full-time.^[4] Two more books were completed in the series: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey in 2008, and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma in 2009, both of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 2012, a prequel to the series, titled The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, was published. Stewart is currently working on two different children's novels which, although unrelated to the Benedict series, "contain similar elements of mystery and adventure."^[5]

Bibliography

• The Black Madonna Shrine and Grotto and other stories (1995)
• Flood Summer (2005)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (2008)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (2009)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums (2011)
• The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (2012)

References

External links

• The Mysterious Benedict Society at publisher Little, Brown
• Trenton Lee Stewart at Library of Congress Authorities, with 6 catalog records