Bradley Steffens

Bradley Steffens is a novelist, poet, and award-winning author of more than sixty nonfiction books for children and young adults.

A former columnist for Gig magazine and the former editor-in-chief of The Foundation magazine, published by Qatar Foundation in Doha, Qatar, Steffens has contributed dozens of articles to various publications, including Discovery Channel Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and QScience Review.

Steffens is a two-time recipient of the San Diego Book Award for Best Young Adult & Children's Nonfiction. His Giants won the 2005 award and his People in the News: J.K. Rowling garnered the 2007 prize. J.K. Rowling also received the Theodor S. Geisel Award for the best published book by a San Diego County author in 2007. Five of Steffens' books, including First Scientist: Ibn Al-Haytham, have been selected by California Readers to be part of the California Collections.

Steffens’s first novel, The Prisoner of Al-Hakim, has earned praise from many quarters. Physicist, author, and BBC host Jim Al-Khalili praised the novel, writing: "Ibn al-Haytham, one of the greatest scholars in history, whose real life was one of the most colourful and fascinating ever told by historians, has been brought to life in a work of fiction utterly brilliantly by Steffens. The reader is transported one thousand years into medieval Arabia. This is a gripping story based on real-life events that is fizzing with adventure and rich in accurate historical and scientific nuggets."

Blue Minaret concurs, stating: "The story of Ibn al-Haytham has now been fictionalized masterfully by Bradley Steffens. Each character is well-crafted and in-depth. Each chapter is action-packed. Ghosts, superstition, murderous robbers all mingle to form a delightful mix."

Wardah Books adds: "This period novel dating back to the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates brings to the fore an oft-forgotten side of polymaths such as Alhasan Ibn al-Haytham, as a person who, like all of us, experiences doubt, fear and love."

Steffens' poetry has appeared in more than fifty literary journals, including Crosscurrents, Sidewalks, Loonfeather, Stone Country, and The Bellingham Review. Steffens has won several prizes for his poetry, including the Emerging Voices Award presented by The Loft Literary Center, the Lake Superior Writing Competition sponsored by the Duluth Public Library, and the annual poetry contest sponsored by the Saint Paul chapter of the American Association of University Women.

The Minneapolis-based Olympia Arts Ensemble produced his play-in-verse, Virodha-Bhakti, a Sequence of Pageants in 1981. Noel Bredahl of the St. Paul Post-Dispatch hailed the play as "an awesome creation on the part of the playwright." David Hawley, also of the St. Paul Post Dispatch, wrote, “Steffens is a powerful, talented artist."

For a complete list of Steffens' books, plays, awards, and other information, click here.

To read a sample chapter of First Scientist: Ibn Al-Haytham click here.

Copyright © 2008 by Bradley Steffens

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