He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts.  Cormier says, “I was a skinny kid living in a ghetto-type neighborhood wanting the world to know that I existed.”  When his own children were small, he worked as a newspaper reporter and wrote at night.

He writes a story over and over until he is satisfied.  “With each novel, I fill a shopping bag with material that has been rewritten.”  He wants to make the story as true as possible, yet censors often dislike his books, and this surprises him.

The teen years, explains Cormier, are not a “peppermint world of fun and frolic.”  He tries to show the “strength of young adults—their resilience, their ability to absorb the blows teenage life delivers.”

One time a woman who hated his books met Cormier and instead of finding a monster, she saw who he really was—an ordinary guy trying to be “one of the good guys, sometimes failing, but trying anyway.”

Mr. Cormier passed away on November 2, 2000.