Adnan AshrafAdnan Ashraf was born in Northampton, England and spent most of his childhood in suburban Ohio, where he learned how to type and first began writing fiction. His first typed-up story was "The Adventures of Gatrare Hockachowits and Elvittsburgh Borg."At age 12, he then moved to Karachi for a time before graduating from high school in Florida. He studied fiction writing at Bennington College, and the City College of New York, and much later at the University of East Anglia in London, and the Center for Literature and Theatre in Miami. He won the New York University Press prize for hyperfiction with The Straight Path (1999), which juror Stuart Moulthrop described as "a compelling and brilliantly elaborated story of spiritual awakening." Subsequently, he taught English in Jeddah, Lahore, Fremont, and Amman whilst he learned sacred knowledge from traditional scholars, which he continues to do. His essay "A Vehicle for the Sacred," about the near eastern novels of Pickthall, was published by Brill in 2017. Journey Beyond the Great Tree is his first middle grade novel. Read More Read Less