Jim Thayer is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels. To his books he brings writing that “is smooth and clear. Deceptively simple, it wastes no words, and it has a rhythm that only confident stylists achieve.” (Newgate Callendar, New York Times Book Review.) His novels have been translated into all major European languages and Japanese and Chinese. He recently completed a manual for novelists, The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel. Thayer is the son of an eastern Washington farmer and his wife, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington State University and of the University of Chicago Law School. He teaches novel writing at the University of Washington extension school, where he received the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award in the Arts, Writing, and Humanities. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two daughters.