A. J. Hartley

Andrew James Hartley is a British-born American novelist, who writes mystery/thrillers and fantasy adventures. His series of children's/young adult fantasy adventures came out in later 2011. He used to blog regularly for the writers' site Magical Words and is a regular presenter at Thrillerfest and Dragon Con. His thrillers have been USA Today and New York Times bestsellers and his 5th novel, Will Power, was listed by Kirkus Reviews as one of the 15 best fantasy/scifi books of 2010. The first of three middle grades/young adult adventures, Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact, was released from Razorbill (Penguin) in October 2011. In 2011 he co-authored with David Hewson a novelization of Shakespeare's Macbeth written specially for audio and released by Audible.com in June, narrated by Alan Cumming. His second collaboration with Hewson – an audio novel based on Hamlet, performed by Richard Armitage – was named Audible.com's best book of 2014 and was nominated for two Audie awards.
He is currently working with Tom DeLonge (of Angels and Airwaves and formerly Blink-182) on a novel series – Sekret Machines – released by DeLonge's To The Stars company in 2016. The series will have 3 books and a documentary film. The first book in the series, Chasing Shadows, was accompanied by a 4 track EP of the same name by Angels and Airwaves. Hartley is also writing a new Young Adult scifi series to be published by DeLonge's To The Stars Inc. and distributed by Simon and Schuster, called Cathedrals of Glass. The first book, Planet of Blood and Ice, will be released in Feb 2017. A limited signed edition was released through To The Stars in November 2016 and sold out in 36 hours.
June 2016 saw the release of the first of his new young adult series – SteepleJack – from Tor Teen. Book has already received several starred reviews from trade journals as Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and ALA Booklist. It was listed as one of Kirkus's Best Teen Books for 2016.

He was born in Preston, Lancashire. After his undergraduate degree he lived in Japan where he taught English for two years, travelling extensively throughout Asia. He then moved to the United States and got Masters and Doctoral degrees in English Literature from Boston University. He taught for nine years at the University of West Georgia and became the resident dramaturg for Georgia Shakespeare. At present he is the distinguished professor of Shakespeare in the Department of Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a theatre director and dramaturg, and is the editor of the performance journal Shakespeare Bulletin, published by Johns Hopkins University press. He is the director of the Shakespeare in Action Centre at UNC Charlotte. His third novel, What Time Devours, draws on his experiences as an academic and centers on a lost Shakespeare play called Love's Labour's Won.

He studied Egyptology at Manchester University and worked just outside Jerusalem at a Bronze Age site. His mystery/thrillers, which have been USA Today and New York Times bestsellers, reflect this interest in the past, and particularly in the history of culture and ideas. His two principal characters are Deborah Miller, a Jewish museum curator who lives in Atlanta, and Thomas Knight, a high school English teacher from Evanston, Illinois.

Currently lives in Charlotte, NC. He is married, has a son.

• 2001–2002 University of West Georgia Honors Professor of the Year
• 2012 SIBA Book Award (young adult) for Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact
• 2016 Named to Kirkus Best Teen Books of 2016 list for Steeplejack

• http://ajhartley.net/bio/a-j-s-largely-academic-c-v/