Eric A. Kimmel was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1946. He attended PS 193, Andries Hudde Junior High School, and Midwood High School. Brooklyn College was across the street from his high school, so he didn't want to go there. He headed west, to Easton, Pennsylvania where he graduated from Lafayette College in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in English literature.

Eric worked as an elementary school teacher at P.S. 68 in Manhattan while working on his masters degree at New York University. From there he went to the US. Virgin Islands where he worked as a teacher and librarian. He spent a lot of time lying on St. Thomas' beautiful beaches.

Returning to reality, he finished his Ph.D. degree in Education at the University of Illinois in 1973. He taught courses in language arts, children's literature, and storytelling at Indiana University at South Bend in South Bend, Indiana from 1973 to 1978, and from 1978 to 1993 at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Eric retired from college teaching in 1993 to become a full-time writer. He still holds the rank of Professor Emeritus of Education at Portland State.

Eric has wanted to be an author since he first discovered back in kindergarten that people called authors make books. His first book came out in 1974. Since then he has published over fifty titles, many of which have won numerous state awards, appeared on school and library recommended lists, and won prestigious awards such as the Caldecott Honor Medal (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins) and the Sydney Taylor Picture Book Award (The Chanukkah Guest and Gershon's Monster).

Eric travels throughout the United States and the world visiting schools, talking about his books, and telling stories. His first love is sharing stories from different countries and cultures. During the last two years he and his wife Doris have visited Norway, Italy, Singapore, and Panama. He is always looking out for ideas for new books.

Eric and Doris live in Portland, Oregon. Eric has a dog named Tasha, two cats named Puff and Inky, and a tank full of tropical fish. He has several hobbies. He loves bluegrass music. He keeps his banjo next to his desk so he can practice whenever he takes a break from writing. He loves horses and is a fairly good rider. In other words, he has only fallen off once. The horse that Eric rides is named Cloudy.

Try not to laugh too hard. This
is a picture of how I looked when
I first started sending stories to editors, hoping they might be
made into books. It was taken
in 1972 when I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois, where I first seriously studied literature for children.

The photographer was my friend Donna Russell, who worked as a photographer for the local newspaper.