John C. Hamilton has spent most of his life in Minnesota. His first job was in the news media—delivering papers. He has worked as a house painter, a delivery driver, a corn shucker in a factory, and a movie usher learning the art of cinema, and life, in a darkened theater.
With a degree in photojournalism and mass communication in hand, he launched a career in magazine editing, which led to writing and editing books. After 40 years in the trenches, he is now a bestselling author of more than 300 nonfiction books for young adults, plus three novels and 13 screenplays, several of which have been optioned by Hollywood studios.
John’s young adult book Battle of the Little Bighorn earned 2015 Spur Award Finalist honors from the Western Writers of America. He is a two-time winner of the Golden Duck Award for Excellence in Children’s Science Fiction Literature, and his epic retelling of the Lewis & Clark expedition, Lewis & Clark: Adventures West, was a Minnesota Book Award finalist for Young Adult Nonfiction. School Library Journal said “(Hamilton’s) books present a remarkable amount of information and provide readers with a clear understanding of complicated issues.”
John can be found most summers with his family either exploring the American West or hiking along Minnesota’s rugged North Shore.
