Brent Curtis

Brent Curtis is a bestselling author whose fiction and non-fiction works span a wide range of genres. He has written several stand-alone titles as well as two series, the “Tara Nolan” series and the “Bear Track” series. He is a two-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Curtis was born in Chicago in 1955, and he attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a BA in English. He also attended Columbia University, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing. He worked as a book editor for several publishing houses, including William Morrow & Co., Penguin USA, and the Dutch publisher Elsevier Z&K.

Curtis's first novel, The Last Four Days, was published in 1990. It tells the story of a group of people in a summer vacation home who are forced to confront the hidden secrets in their past. The novel was critically well-received, and it won him the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction.

In 2000, Curtis published Strike Anywhere, a heist novel about a group of crooks planning the perfect burglary. The novel was met with great success, and it was praised by several prominent authors, including John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates. It won Curtis his second PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Curtis's 2002 novel, The Dream of Arcadia, is a love story set against the backdrop of a small town in Michigan. It follows two teenagers as they attempt to discover their true identities and build a future in an uncertain and hostile world. The novel met with critical acclaim, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

In 2003, Curtis began the first of his two series, the “Tara Nolan” series. The series chronicles the adventures of Tara Nolan, a female private investigator in Chicago. The first book in the series, Perpetual Motion, was a bestseller and won Curtis the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The series continued with A Life in Ruins (2005), Closure (2008), and Renewal (2010).

Curtis then started the “Bear Track” series in 2009 with The Uncertainty Principle. The series follows Tom Sanderson and his wife, Samantha, as they attempt to unravel a complex network of deceit and corruption in northern Michigan. The series continued with The Brethren (2010), The White City (2011), and The Hush (2014).

Curtis has also written several stand-alone titles, including Buffalo Jump (2010), Wolves of the Deep (2016), and The River of Lost Souls (2017). His most recent novel is Invictus, which was published in 2019.

Curtis's books have earned him much praise from critics, and he has been named one of the “Top 100 Crime Writers” by The Telegraph. His books have been translated into over 15 languages, and his works are popular around the world. He lives in Michigan with his wife and daughter.