About The Author

ZACHARY ANDREW BERNSTEIN was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Santiago, Chile by Jewish-American immigrants.  His springboard into the literary world (which subsequently led him to move to the United States) was writing instruction manuals, most famously How To Use Your New SONY RMR-TP1 Remote Control (D Series) (1997), which garnered fame for being "the 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' of instruction manuals".**  Through this work he was later commissioned to write for several newspapers, among them, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Amarillo Globe-News, Anchorage Press and the Anoka County Union.  His prolific career would continue into the world of fiction with his debut novel, The Stunning Debut (1998), followed secondly by the equally successful The Stunning Sophomore Attempt (1999) -- seen by some critics as a sequel to his first novel.  By now drowning in his own fame, success and fortune, he completed the epic collection of short stories, Ten Page Wonders (2000), and the poignant comedy The Indignant Flight Attendant (2000), together earning him seventeen Pulitzer prizes in one year.  Bernstein shocked the literary world with his seamless transition into children's books, including Witches in Stitches, Clara's Carrot, Grandpa's Big Find, Randall Ties His Shoes and Fish Don't Drink Coffee, all written and later compiled together in 2001.  He broadened his horizons even further writing incendiary works for the stage.  Premiering at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago was the politically-charged Congressman Brute in 2002, followed by the haunting farce Two Ghosts? which made it's debut at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City in 2003.  Two Ghosts? would earn Bernstein countless awards in the achievement of writing, including a Tony award and a Drama Desk award, as well as make history as the first and only play ever to win an Oscar.  Since his success in theater, he has returned mainly to fiction with what critics called his "Gym Coach Trilogy": The Muscle Men (2004), Weight Class (2005) and The Hundred Year Dash (2006), all of which garnered Bernstein's typical praise among critics and fans alike.  He returned once more to theater with the box-office smash hit about xenophobia and heartbreak in South America, Los Otros (2007).  2008 brought in two works of non-fiction: Frequent Flyers, a survey of migratory birds, and his long-awaited book on writing, The Bold and the Italic. 

Bernstein lives with his wife Stella and their twenty-six children in Seattle, Washington and Paris, France.

**Bernstein, Z. A. (5/3/97) "Peruvian Manual Writer Brings Life To Dying Art Form", Anchorage Press