Leonard Michaels has been a published author and journalist since the 1960s, with over 100 books to his credit. He is the author of the best-selling literary essay "The Art of Fiction," and, more recently, "Introduction to Literature: A Novel Approach," which serves as a comprehensive overview of the art form. He is also a contributing editor for Writer's Digest magazine. Born in 1942, his career in journalism and writing began early
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Michaels graduated from high school at seventeen and was accepted by Duke University on a scholarship to study journalism. There he wrote for The Daily Tarheel and The Daily Progress, and became the editor of The Daily Advance. It was while at Duke that he realized his true calling: writing fiction.
Deciding to use fiction as a means rather than just a hobby, he decided to pursue a career in writing full time. In 1966, Leonard met his future wife, Susan, when she was attending Duke on a full scholarship from Columbia University. She was working on her Master's degree in English Literature when she met him.
While they were married in 1969, they divorced in 1975. In 1998 Susan Michaels died of cancer at age seventy-nine, leaving her husband alone again in 2002.