From Pulitzer prize-winning playwright to young adult fiction writer, American author Paul Zindel (born 1936) turned his real-life turbulent teens into fictional stories to show teenagers that their lives and feelings do matter.

Paul Zindel did not choose to become a playwright, a screenwriter or young adult fiction writer. In fact, Zindel told Teaching PreK-8 interviewer Diane Winarski that he was "wired" to become a writer: "I like storytelling. We all have an active thing that we do that gives us self-esteem, that makes us proud; it's necessary. I have to tell stories because that's the way the wiring went in." However, Zindel also survived a childhood where his tales were born. From his mother's inability to keep a job to his search for his own "Pigman," Zindel has told his stories in ten plays, seven screenplays, and over 20 young adult fiction books. As quoted in English Journal, Zindel...