BIO | David Harten Watson, author

About The Editor

David Harten Watson is editor and publisher of the 2022 cli-fi (climate fiction) anthology Extinction Notice: Tales of a Warming Earth, a Readers’ Favorite 5-star book. Extinction Notice features cli-fi stories from authors hailing from nine nations on four continents all over the world (see www.cli-fi.org). He’s the author of the Magicians Gold series, including Magic Teacher's Son (a 2016 Eric Hoffer Award Winner in category Young Adult, 2016 First Horizon Award Finalist, 2016 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List, and 2015 IAN Book of the Year Award Finalist) and other novels in the Magicians Gold series, including Fortress of Gold (a Readers’ Favorite 5-star novel). David also wrote the science fiction novelette Millennium Bomber: A Story of Digital Revenge.

David is a full member of the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). He also belongs to the USABOT (US Army Brotherhood of Tankers), Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, and The Saber Legion. David has worked in a dizzying array of jobs including U.S. Army Armor officer at Fort Knox (experience that came in handy for his second novel, Fortress of Gold), camp counselor, teacher, tax preparer, car salesman, portrait photographer, track photographer, solar energy entrepreneur, and IT Specialist.

Raised in snowy Buffalo, New York, David graduated from Calasanctius School (which closed shortly after his graduation, although he swears it wasn’t his fault). Due to what he assumes was a clerical error, he was admitted to Princeton University, where the Army paid his tuition in exchange for a few years of his life. Upon graduation, David informed the Army of his motion sickness, so naturally they commissioned him into the Armor Corps, because the best place for anyone with motion sickness is obviously inside a tank. When he gallantly volunteered to be deployed to the nation where the Army most needed tankers, Germany, the Army sent him to the exotic foreign land of Fort Knox, Kentucky. The last laugh was on the Army, though, because David turned out to be as qualified at tanking as you’d expect of someone with motion sickness (he’d tried to warn them). After an honorable discharge from the Army, David returned to Buffalo to earn additional degrees from Canisius College and Buffalo State College.

David now lives with his wife (a native of Ecuador, not Eldor), their two sons, and two cats in New Jersey, where in his day job he's an IT Specialist. He’s the Organizer of the Woodbridge Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Meetup, which he founded in 2008. In his free time, David enjoys kayaking, herding cats, and acting (he had a major role in the feature-length, no-budget horror movie Coordinates).

David Harten Watson’s Literary Awards include:

2022 Readers' Favorite 5-star reviews for Extinction Notice

2019 Readers' Favorite 5-star review for Fortress of Gold

2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner for Magic Teacher's Son in category YA

2016 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List for Magic Teacher's Son

2016 New Horizon Award Finalist for Magic Teacher's Son

2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards Finalist for Magic Teacher's Son

2010 Philadelphia Writers’ Conference Honorable Mention for Magic Teacher's Son