Author, Chris Crutcher - Special LINKS

Special LINKS

Special Links
People, Books & Organizations
of Interest to CC

For years, people have asked why Chris doesn't have a "links" page, and the answer has been simple. It's tough to control the content that goes up at other URLs so it's risky to feature a group of links on his page.

But it's time to rethink that logic and add a few groups of specialized links -- friends, organizations, writers, books blurbed and few other misc. links.

Do you want to be included on Crutcher's page of links? Email his assistant, Kelly and she'll work you into the mix. Is a link broken? Be sure to let Kelly know, so she can check it out.

Terry Davis
2007

Terry Davis
http://www.terrydavis.net

Crutcher has known Terry Davis since their days together as students at Eastern Washington University more than 30 years ago. They taught together in Washington State after graduation. They ran together in the Bay area when Davis was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and Crutcher was the director of the Lakeside School in Oakland. And they've stood shoulder to shoulder as storytellers in the world of YA literature and beyond. They remain close today, working together to bring powerful stories to life.

Davis's works include:

Vision Quest
If Rock & Roll Were a Machine
Mysterious Ways
and others.

Charlie Price

Charlie Price
http://www.charlieprice.info

Crutcher wasn't even 30-years-old when he accepted the challenge of directing the Lakeside School in Oakland, California. The "drop-out" alternative school was a last chance option for the kids enrolled and Charlie Price was one of the director's anchors for nearly a decade. Years later, Charlie followed in Crutcher's footsteps and put his stories to the published page. He's a wonder and a true original.

Price's works include:

Dead Connection
Lizard People
and others.

Kelly Milner Halls
2007

Kelly Milner Halls
http://www.kellymilnerhalls.com

Ten years ago, an editor told freelance journalist Kelly Milner Halls to write a feature on a YA author named Chris Crutcher. She ordered a stack of his books and read them all. On those pages & through the phone lines, Halls came to know more than a master storyteller. She came to know a mentor, a spiritual guide and a friend. When the chance came for her to return the favor by working as his assistant, she lept at the chance, though she still works as a writer, too.

Halls works include:

Albino Animals
Tales of the Cryptids
Mysteries of the Mummy Kids
and others.

Chris and Will Weaver

Will Weaver
http://www.willweaverbooks.com/

Like Terry Davis, Will Weaver studied his craft at Stanford University in Northern California. And through Davis, he met an befriended an alternative school director named Chris Crutcher who also dreamed of writing well. Both achieved their dreams of publication. And Crutcher honored his friend by naming the protagonist in THE CRAZY HORSE ELECTRIC GAME Willie Weaver.

Weaver's works include:

Red Earth, White Earth
Memory Boy
Defect
and others.

Sherman Alexie
January 2007

Sherman Alexie
http://www.shermanalexie.com

Ask Crutcher about the writing of Sherman Alexie and he'll say something like, "It's brilliant and poetic. I wish I could write like that guy." Admiration inspired by the National Book Award? No. He's read Alexie's work for decades, and not just because they share a home region in the Pacific Northwest. When Alexie stepped into the realm of young adult literature with THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, CC was honored to publicly comment on the power of the work.

Alexie's works include:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven
Smoke Signals (screenplay)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
and others.

Terry Trueman
http://www.terrytrueman.com

RUNNING LOOSE, Crutcher's first novel was published shortly after he returned to the Pacific Northwest -- Spokane -- from Oakland, California. It was positively was reviewed in the local paper, the Spokesman Review, by a local poet and therapist Terry Trueman. Years later, Trueman won acclaim with the release of STUCK IN NEUTRAL and credited friends Chris Crutcher and Terry Davis with helping him mine the best of his literary talent in creating that debut work.

Trueman's works include:

Stuck in Neutral
Inside Out
Hurricane
and others.

Mike Harmon

Michael Harmon
http://www.booksbyharmon.com/

Writers lurk, even where you least expect them -- even behind the sheers that trim your hair, which is how Crutcher first came to know Michael Harmon. When conversation revealed Harmon's authorly aspirations, CC offered to have a cup of coffee someday to talk about the business. When someday arrived, Harmon's car broke down in a raging snowstorm. So he sprinted to the meeting place to keep from missing his chance to learn. Impressed by Harmon's drive and determination, Crutcher encouraged his creative spark and soon saw it pay off in the form of a two book deal.

Harmon's work includes:

Skate
The Last Exit to Normal
and more to come.

Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson
http://www.writerlady.com/

For years, Crutcher only knew Laurie Halse Anderson by her work, beginning with the masterpiece SPEAK. But even before they met, even before he agreed to blurb her later work TWISTED, he read her novels and wondered at the power of her writer's voice. Nothing changed once they met, apart from exchanging smiles and email addresses. But his respect for Anderson's skills and courage as a writer continues to grow with her impressive body of work.

Anderson's work includes:

Speak
Fever 1793
Twisted
and others.

Robie Harris
http://www.robieharris.com/

Pick a banned book list from the last decade -- almost ANY banned book list from the last decade -- and you'll find Robie Harris on it. Her candid and playful books on kids and their human bodies (and body processes) have left young readers informed and some fearful parents hot tempered. Is it any wonder she and Crutcher have come to be friends? He's on ALMOST as many banned book lists as she is.

Harris's works include:

It's Perfectly Normal
It's So Amazing
It's Not the Stork
and more.

Sonya Sones
http://www.sonyasones.com/

Like Robie Harris, Sonya stands shoulder to shoulder with Chris in the battle against censorship -- for good cause. Her books, including WHAT MY MOTHER DOES KNOW, are banned and challenged by people who think ignorance is bliss. WRONG, she seems to say, very often in harmony with CC. She's a poet and a novelist with a voice worth hearing.

Sones works include:

What My Mother Doesn't Know
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know
Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

Doug Safranek

...is a remarkable artist in New York who uses the medium of egg tempera (a mix of egg yolk and dried pigment) to create these magnificently detailed works of art featured in exhibits all over the country including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Why is his work now featured on Crutcher's website? Because in the late '60's, Doug was on the Spokane AAU swim team coached by a young college student named Chris Crutcher.

"He was a quick, kickass swimmer," Crutcher says with a smile. "He's made good and I take full credit."

This piece (left) is called "Lap Dance" and depicts New York's Coney Island beach front. For a look at more of Doug's beautiful work, click HERE. For a short article about Doug, click HERE.

Eric Mandel's Team in Training
http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/EricMandel_LLS

While Chris was in Seattle at the Greenwood branch of the Seattle Public Library in December of 2007, he met Eric Mandel. An athlete in training, Eric plans to run his second marathon -- the Prague International Marathon on May 11 -- to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society very soon. He came to the library after reading and enjoying DEADLINE. But CC was so moved by his passion for raising money for a good cause, he wanted to add Mandel to his links page.

If you'd like to help raise money for a good cause, be sure to click on his URL. Hope this helps, Eric!

Editor supreme,
Deborah Brodie

Deborah Brodie
http://www.deborahbrodie.com

For nearly three decades, Chris has watched editor Deborah Brodie find and fine tune authors all over the country and the publishing world, including Terry Davis and Charlie Price, two of his closest friends. Now Deborah has launched a new phase of her editorial career. She's opted to work as a freelance editor, offering her services to writers hoping to prepare their manuscripts for submission. Chris congratulates Deborah on this bold new endeavor and is glad to call her a professional colleague and a friend.

Brodie's editorial clients include:

David Adler
Patricia Reilly Giff
Mary Pope Osborne
Jane Yolen
many others

John Dawson Read
http://www.johndawsonread.com/

CC says...

"In 1975 I walked into Tower Records in Berkeley, California determined to find an album from which I'd heard a cut over AM radio. My current dementia had already set in and I could not for the life of me remember the artist's name but I new the song was about some guy going blind. I was in the store more than an hour; Tower had ONE album. I snagged that baby up and played the groove FLAT. (You do know, that a record album has only one groove, right? It's continuous. Back when people knew what an album was, that was pretty funny.) At any rate, I was in the early stages of imagining being a writer, and John Dawson Read played in the background for years as I honed my skills. I wanted to turn into the kind of lyricist he was. I didn't make it, but I got a hell of a lot better. And recently those tunes began playing in my head again, I Googled him and damn! there he was, still writing songs that just carry you. Check him out."

To hear a few sample songs, visit John Dawson Read's MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/johndawsonreadhttp://www.myspace.com/johndawsonread