Payne Schanski is an American author who has worked as an educator, coach, and mentor for middle school and high school students over the past decade. Working closely with these students has meant revisiting the fears, insecurities, and mistakes that make adolescence the turbulent learning experience that it is. These observations, as well as the author's own experiences growing up in Northern Michigan-a quiet, wooded region shrouded with mystery and local lore-inspired him to write The Ghost of Five Mile Creek, his first publication.
After eight years living in Boston, Schanski recently moved back to Northern Michigan with Cathy AuGuste Schanski, his wife, first reader, collaborator, and unending source of inspiration. After thousands of hours of free time on the East Coast devoted to writing about Michigan, eventually moving back was (in Payne's words) "just a matter of time."
Redemption Summer is the final book of a three-part series, along with The Ghost of Five Mile Creek and the soon-to-be released Blue Houses on the Peninsula. Together, the books follow JB's road towards identity formation and maturity, a path with as many sharp twists as the famous Tunnel of Trees.
The author hopes that young adults everywhere-but especially those he had the joy of working with at Tenacity and the Curley K-8 school in Boston will connect with, benefit from, and enjoy reading these books.
