David W. Berner is the best-selling author of WALKS WITH SAM and the award-winning author of THE ISLANDER (Winner of the NYC Big Book Award for Novellas, Honoree at the Paris Book Festival, Finalist for the Hawthorne Prize ), A WELL-RESPECTED MAN, OCTOBER SONG, ACCIDENTAL LESSONS, ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE, THERE'S A HAMSTER IN THE DASHBOARD, NIGHT RADIO, and the memoir THE CONSEQUENCE OF STARS. He also has been honored and has won awards from the prestigious Society of Midland Authors, the Chicago Writers Association, Literary Titan Gold Award, and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. David has also been the Writer-in-Residence at both the Jack Kerouac Project in Orlando, FL and at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home in Oak Park, IL. David moved from Pittsburgh to Chicago to work as a radio reporter and news anchor for CBS Radio and later pursued a career as a writer and educator. His first book ACCIDENTAL LESSONS is about his year teaching in one of the Chicago area's most troubled school districts. The book won the Golden Dragonfly Grand Prize for Literature and has been called a "beautiful, elegantly written book" by award-winning author Thomas E. Kennedy, and "a terrific memoir" by Rick Kogan (Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio). ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE—a 2013 Book of the Year from the Chicago Writers Association—is the author's story of a cross-country road trip with his sons and the revelations of fatherhood. The memoir has been called "heartwarming and heartbreaking" and "a five-star wonderful read." His novel, A WELL-RESPECTED MAN was a 2019 honoree in the fiction category of The Society of Midland Authors Awards.