Peter Murray Hautman (born September 29, 1952) is an American author best known for his novels for young adults. One of them, Godless, won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The National Book Foundation summary is, "A teenage boy decides to invent a new religion with a new god."

Biography

Hautman was born in Berkeley, California on September 29, 1952^[1] and moved to St. Louis Park, Minnesota at the age of five. He graduated from St. Louis Park High School and attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota during the next seven years without receiving a degree from either institution. After working at several jobs for which he calls himself "ill-suited", Hautman's first novel, Drawing Dead, was published in 1993. He lives with novelist and poet Mary Logue in Golden Valley, Minnesota and Stockholm, Wisconsin.^[2]

Awards and honors

• Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, 2011, The Big Crunch
• National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 2004, Godless^[3]
• Minnesota Book Award for Mrs. Million (2000), Sweetblood (2004), Godless (2005) and Blank Confession (2011)
• Wisconsin Library Association Awards for Rag Man (2002) and Invisible (2006)
• Michigan Library Association "Thumbs Up" Award for Mr. Was (1997) and Rash (2007)
• Edgar Award for Best Juvenile for Otherwood (2018)

Books