Carl Deuker - Biography

Biography

Carl Deuker now lives in Washington State which serves as the setting for most of his work. He currently works at Shelton View Elementary School in Bothell teaching 6th graders. Deuker was raised in Redwood City, California, a suburban city twenty-five miles south of San Francisco. When he was three years old, his father died of a stroke while working as a traveling salesman. His mother did not remarry, instead choosing to raise Deuker and his sister Beth herself. Deuker's mother did file a wrongful death claim against the hotel where her husband died. That incident later played a part in Deuker's novel, Heart of a Champion'

Deuker attended St. Pius School in Redwood City. His high school years were spent at St. Francis, a Catholic school in Mountain View, California. Deuker experiences in high school were typically rocky. His liberal politics and interest in contemporary music (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Beatles) annoyed many of his teachers. The same qualities made other teachers take him under their wing. Deuker's high school sports career was completely undistinguished. is athletic career was undistinguished. He was sometimes good enough to make a teams but never good enough to play much. His best sport was golf, but even there he was typically the fifth or sixth man on the team. Rather than working his way up the ladder, in his senior year an influx of talented freshmen reduced his match time even further. Deuker next attended the University of California at Berkeley on a Regents Scholarship. During his time at Berkeley, he participated in numerous protest marches over Peoples Park and the Vietnam War. He was a foot-soldier in these protests, not a political leader. Deuker wrote stories and poems while at Berkeley, publishing a few poems in obscure literary magazines. Deuker majored in English literature; his senior thesis was on William Faulkner. Upon graduation, Deuker next entered graduate school in English at the University of Washington where he earned a Master's Degree. After that came a stint on the Los Angeles Daily Journal and then a return to school, this time to earn a teaching certificate at UCLA. Deuker returned to Seattle during a time when teaching positions were few and far between. He accepted a position at St. Luke School in Shoreline where he taught junior high and also served as the school's P.E. teacher. During this time, Deuker wrote film and book reviews for a small Seattle newspaper, The Seattle Sun. All the while, he was also attempting to write adult fiction, but with no success. Finally, in the late 1980s, Deuker turned his hand to young adult fiction. His first novel, On the Devil's Court, was published in 1989. The book is loosely based on the Faust legend. It was well-received, earning a "Best Book for Young Adults" award from the ALA and "Young Adult Book of the Year" award in South Carolina. Deuker followed this book with Heart of a Champion,a baseball book that also contains autobiographical material. This book also garnered awards, being named Young Adult Book of the Year in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Nebraska. Since the publication of On the Devil's Court and Heart of a Champion, Deuker has produced sports-themed young adult novels at two or three year intervals. In order, the novels are: Painting the Back, Night Hoops, High Heat, Runner, Gym Candy. Deuker's most recent novel, Payback Time was published in September 2010. All his novels have been edited by Ms. Ann Rider, and Deuker readily acknowledged her guidance and assistance. Deuker's books are aimed at middle-school to high school audiences. Typically, he uses a sports context to explore socially important issues. For example, Heart of a Champion deals with teenage alcohol abuse, Painting the Black with sexual assault and peer pressure, Night Hoops with domestic violence and neglect. High Heat deals with the theme of family death, the consequences of crime in the family and the problems of revenge. Runner involves a young man who unwittingly becomes involved in a terrorist plot. Deuker's novel, Gym Candy, was inspired by newspaper reports connecting anabolic steroid use among high school players with 'roid rage and suicide. He is currently writing a book titled Swagger.