Justin Allen
Justin was born in Boise, Idaho in 1974. He graduated from Boise State University with a degree in philosophy, and from Columbia University with an MFA in fiction. Justin can also be found at www.facebook.com/JustinAllenauthor, and loves to hear from interesting readers.
While at Columbia, Justin was first introduced to Uruk, a prehistoric hunter from the jungles of sub-Saharan Africa, and the hero of his first novel, "Slaves of the Shinar." Nisi Shawl, in the Seattle Times, wrote the following about the book: "With a driving plot and an excellent eye for living, breathing, tactile detail, author Allen brings immediacy to this modern version of the Gilgamesh legend while keeping it in context with the rest of the not-necessarily-white world of thousands of years ago."
Building on that success, Justin wrote "Year of the Horse," an all-ages fantasy cowboy-western slated for publication in October 2009. "Year of the Horse" tells the story of sixteen-year-old Yen Tzu-lu, the child of Chinese immigrants and one of a band of treasure hunters brought together from every corner of the continent to recapture a stolen gold mine. Leading Tzu-Lu and his gang is the gunslinger Jack Straw, a figure who is as much legend as reality, as much magic as lead. Ultimately, this band of outsiders finds it must learn to live together, trust and care for one another. If they make it across a wild continent, they'll be rich; if they don't, they'll surely be dead.
Justin is also an active dancer, having performed with such companies as Dances Patrelle, Eidolon Ballet, and Idaho Dance Theatre. In 2009, his work in writing and dance came together in the form of a new ballet, "Murder at the Masque: The Casebook of Edgar Allan Poe," with choreography by Francis Patrelle, music by Patrick Soluri, and all based upon an original story by Justin Allen.
He is roughly six feet tall, weighs somewhere around 185 pounds (often more, to his chagrin), has dark-brown hair and eyes, and suffers from near-sightedness, motion-sickness, and a tendency to get angry at airport personnel. His wife, Day Mitchell, a licensed master social worker, is trying to help him overcome this last item, but finds the going hard.
