J. Scott Fuqua is also known as Jonathon Scott Fuqua. However, because most people call him Scott, he has made an effort to drop the Jonathon.

 

   Scott is the author of four multi award-winning young adult novels (The Reappearance of Sam Webber, Darby, The Willoughby Spit Wonder, King of the Pygmies). He has also written two highly acclaimed literary novels (In the Wake of the Boatman, Gone and Back Again) and the award-winning graphic novel In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe. Spring saw the publication of the multimedia project Medusa’s Daughter, which came out as a novel, graphic novel, and graphic novella. He’s penned and illustrated two books on the history of architecture and a children’s book on the history of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. For elementary students, he wrote the award winning graphic chapter book Catie and Josephine and illustrated The Synagogue Speaks. His most recent children’s book, Calvert the Raven in the Battle of Baltimore, was the Library of Congress National Book Festival Selection for Maryland as well as Maryland’s Center for the Book’s 2013 Selection for kids. Calvert the Raven has been written into the Maryland State elementary school social studies curriculum and Scott was a speaker at the Middle States Council for Social Studies in February.

 

   This summer Scott has two books coming out, both of which he wrote and illustrated. The first book is a colorful, vibrant book on the bewildering nature and high cost of bullying called The Mighty MT, staring MT Pitt, a wonderful character with a huge imagination. It will be targeted for elementary and middle school readers. The other work is a YA novel called The Secrets of the Greaser Hotel, which has already received positive reviews from other writers and colleagues and deals with the dark magic of pure greed and the indestructible connections of chosen family. Along the way, it examines the amorality of pure capitalism and the sad, hopeful life of Allie Argos and her surrogate father, the talking cat Jerome, as well as her best and only friends, Midge Darlington, Arnold Armstrong, and Rena Duchamp. The Secrets of the Greaser Hotel is a highly anticipated gothic adventure with the unusual twist of incorporating over 100 illustrations throughout the story.

 

   Scott writes living history plays for the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the Maryland Historical Society, two of which were honored at the National Theatre in Washington DC last spring.  He has won three Maryland State Arts Council writing awards and teaches writing and illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He gives talks all over the country about writing with dyslexia, surviving life with bipolar, and how to write and put together cool stories, both traditional and non-traditional (graphic novels, illustrated novels, children’s books) for students from elementary school to college.