Brooks Hansen is a critically acclaimed author of a dozen books, including four New York Times Notables, two books for Young Readers (which he also illustrated) and one memoir. His novel The Chess Garden was selected as a PW Book of the Year in 1995. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2005 for his quasi-history of John the Baptist, and his 2021 title, The Unknown Woman of the Seine, was a New York Times pick for best historical fiction of 2021. Born and raised in New York City, he currently teaches at Cate School in Carpinteria, California, where he lives with his wife, Elizabeth, and–when he’s lucky–his now-fledged children, Theo and Ada. He has also just released two new books, The Beaut' (Star Pine, 2025) and LucidDream™ (Astrophil Press, 2026).