Garth Stein

Garth Stein was born on in Los Angeles, California. His mother is from Alaska and is of Irish and Tlingit Native American descent, while his father, a native of Brooklyn, is the child of Jewish emigrants. Stein grew up in Seattle and attended Columbia University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees, earning a BA in 1987 and an MFA in film in 1990. After spending 18 years in New York, he returned to Seattle in 2001. Following his move to Seattle, he earned his racing license with the Sports Car Club of America and was involved with high performance driver education. He left racing several years later, after a serious crash that happened while racing in the rain. These experiences inspired the Art of Racing in the Rain. Before turning to writing, Stein worked as a documentary filmmaker and worked on several award-winning films, including The Lunch Date (1991), The Last Party (1992, featuring Robert Downey, Jr.), and When Your Head's Not a Head, It's a Nut (1993), which is a personal documentary following Stein's sister and family as she struggles with epilepsy, seeking treatment through surgery. Stein has also written several plays, the first of which, Brother Jones, was produced in Los Angeles in 2005 to glowing reviews. Stein is also the co-founder of Seattle7Writers, a nonprofit organization that promotes literacy by providing funding and donations of books to those in need. Stein lives in Seattle with his wife, Andrea Perlbinder Stein, their three sons, and a lab/poodle mix.