Steven Amsterdam was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Japanese Studies and worked in Tokyo, making contacts with NHK Broadcasting, which eventually led him back to the US working as a film and television assistant in California.
After that, love of the printed word lured him home to New York, working in different roles at Random House; first at Fodor's Travel Guides and then at Knopf. During these years, a love of pastry led him to make wedding cakes on the side, then work in a bakery and finally, become a pastry chef.
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An extended trip to Australia led to him falling hard for Melbourne. You're not supposed to honour those holiday urges, but he moved here in 2003 and has no regrets. Since then he has been a freelance travel editor, graphic designer, pastry chef, and student. He received a masters degree in creative writing and a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Melbourne. It all makes perfect sense, really.
In the background, he's been writing for years, working on everything from speeches for CEOs at the Tokyo Auto Show to short stories in literary journals. Things We Didn't See Coming is his first book. It won The Age's Book of the Year and Fiction Book of the Year for 2009, which is not too shabby!
Logically (for Steven, at least), 2011 will see his work featured as a VCE List 1 Text!
Steven is currently working as a psychiatric nurse and writing his next book, which is about a family with special powers. |
Steven can present at libraries and literature festivals. He also visits secondary schools, conducting writing workshops and talking about the process of writing, as well as career choices.
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