Gordon Korman was born in Cote St. Luk, Montreal, Canada on October 23, 1963 and grew up in the Toronto area. Since he had no siblings or pets, he wrote to keep himself amused. Then his 7th-grade English teacher told the class they could have 45 minutes a day for four months to work on a story of their choice. Korman began This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, which became his first published book. Korman was also the class monitor for the Scholastic TAB Book Club, so he sent his novel to the address on the TAB flyer, and a few days after his 14th birthday, he had a book contract with Scholastic. By the time Korman graduated from high school, he had published five other novels and… several articles for Canadian newspapers. He then moved to New York City, where he studied film and dramatic writing at NYU. Gordon is a graduate of New York University's Dramatic Writing Program. He has published over twenty books for young adults, and currently travels around the world to speak at schools and conventions. Korman has also collaborated with his mother on two books of poetry written by the fictional character Jeremy Bloom.