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Ron Koertge

Website

http://ronkoertge.com/

Twitter

ronkoertge

Genre

Young Adult

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Ask Ron Koertge what he brings to the realm of young adult fiction, and the seasoned author responds matter-of-factly. "I write dialogue well, and I'm funny," he says--an assessment few would argue with. "I like iconoclasm and practice it in my fiction. I don't like pretense or hypocrisy. I'm almost always irreverent."

A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH Ask Ron Koertge what he brings to the realm of young adult fiction, and the seasoned author responds matter-of-factly. "I write dialogue well, and I'm funny," he says--an assessment few would argue with. "I like iconoclasm and practice it in my fiction. I don't like pretense or hypocrisy. I'm almost always irreverent."

A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH AN X started as a short story, but the heroine wouldn't let me alone," the author says. "She had a story to tell, and she wanted a whole novel to tell it in." Another unlikely pairing is found in STONER & SPAZ, Ron Koertge's funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. "My wife works with the disabled," the writer says of his inspiration for the novel, which quickly garnered critical acclaim. "One night she came home and told me about a young man she'd been working with. He had C.P. and a terrific sense of humor. Coincidentally, that day I had talked to a former student of mine who'd recently been in rehab for substance abuse. What would happen, I wondered, if those two knew each other?"

In addition to his young adult novels, Ron Koertge writes poetry, and has been dubbed "the wisest, most entertaining wiseguy in American poetry" by poet-laureate Billy Collins. SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is narrated by a straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman who has been benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. Written entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix--including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum--SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is a veritable English teacher's dream. "The interest in SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is less with the arc of the plot than with the individual poems, some of which demonstrate poetic form, some of which tell the story," the author says. "One of my biggest challenges was to write like a fourteen-year-old who has a knack for writing poetry, and not just sound like a sixty-one-year-old pretending to be one!"

The author's first book with Candlewick, THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS, is also a novel written in free verse, with 15 different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. "The book started to nag me a few months before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and I started to make notes in the form of poems," he says of the hauntingly prescient work. "BRIMSTONE needed to move at high velocity, and this form is perfect for that: no tail fins, no leather seats, no moon roof. Just get in and go."

Ron Koertge grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. There he learned to "drive a tractor and buck hay bales, which are clearly useful skills in Los Angeles," he quips. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California.
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45 posts
Ron Koertge's Blog

Ron Koertge isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Women’s Studies Poems

The two poems below are from the latest issue of the journal “Women’s Studies.”

Poetry_Page_1 Poetry_Page_2

Combine Editions
Ron Koertge’s books

Average rating: 3.63 · 18,651 ratings · 2,873 reviews · 74 distinct works • Similar authors

	Stoner & Spaz (Stoner & Spaz, #1) 3.60 avg rating — 3,187 ratings — published 2002 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, #1) 3.75 avg rating — 1,202 ratings — published 2003 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge, Andrea Dezso (Illustrator) 3.25 avg rating — 1,212 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coaltown Jesus 3.81 avg rating — 716 ratings — published 2013 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Brimstone Journals 3.40 avg rating — 586 ratings — published 2001 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs (Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, #2) 3.73 avg rating — 424 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Margaux with an X 3.28 avg rating — 447 ratings — published 2003 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boy Girl Boy 3.06 avg rating — 449 ratings — published 2005 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Strays 3.34 avg rating — 408 ratings — published 2007 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Arizona Kid 3.64 avg rating — 336 ratings — published 1988 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Ron Koertge…

Series by Ron Koertge

Stoner & Spaz (2 books)
by

Ron Koertge

3.59 avg rating — 3,475 ratings

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (2 books)
by

Ron Koertge

3.75 avg rating — 1,626 ratings

Quotes by Ron Koertge (?)

“I'm not a big fan of inspiration. I'm too old to sit and wait for the muse to give me a little kiss... I write a lot, and I'm not afraid to make mistakes or to write badly. I can alsways fix something weak and dull. But I can't fix a blank page.”
― Ron Koertge

tags: inspiration, writing

23 likes

“The guys can't take their eyes off Colleen... one of them... probably sees her just like I do, she's the gatekeeper to another world.”
― Ron Koertge, Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II

tags: admiration, infatuation, puppy-love, teenage-life, young-adult

16 likes

“You've got scars, you're beat up, you're a different person, but you're through it.”
― Ron Koertge, Deadville

11 likes

See all Ron Koertge's quotes »

Polls

What book should we read in August?

You may write in titles, provided the book is a 2027 Newbery contender and already published.

Styx and Stones by Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge

20 votes 35.7%

The Second Life of Snap by Erin Entrada Kelly

16 votes 28.6%

Hail Mariam by Huda Al-Marashi

12 votes 21.4%

Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for Wisdom by Claudia Mills

7 votes 12.5%

A Year Without Home by V. T. Bidania (write-in)

1 vote 1.8%

56 total votes

1 comment

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Book Challenge: Jennifer's 2008 Book Challenge	70	311	Jan 01, 2009 10:20PM
The Book Challenge: Jennifer's 2009 Book Challenge	19	490	Sep 01, 2009 03:42PM
The Book Challenge: 'Variety Is The Spice Of Life' Challenge	63	755	Jan 14, 2010 06:58AM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2785	1216	Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM
Teen Book Club: Master Book Suggestion List	1	85	Mar 06, 2011 02:41PM
Young Adult Book ...: Top 10 Teen/YA Authors You'd Like To Meet!	42	271	Apr 12, 2011 05:44PM
One Million Pages...: April 2012 Readathon Summaries	7	15	Apr 30, 2012 09:44AM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2297	786	May 31, 2012 09:02PM

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Ron Koertge’s Followers (104)

Ron Koertge

45 postsRon Koertge's Blog

Women’s Studies Poems

Combine EditionsRon Koertge’s books

Series by Ron Koertge

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

45 posts
Ron Koertge's Blog

Combine Editions
Ron Koertge’s books