Robert Lipsyte

Welcome to my Home Page. Please feel free to e-mail any suggestions of what you would like to see on my website.

But first, rush out and buy my wife's wonderful new book (I wrote the foreword)"Along the Roaring River: From Mao to the Met" by Hao Jiang Tian with Lois B. Morris. Just published by Wiley, it got starred reviews from Kirkus and the Library Journal.

My own latest YA novel, "Yellow Flag," came out in September. It's about a famous stock car racing family and the grandson who has been picked to carry on the tradition. He's not sure he wants to be in the hot seat.

"Yellow Flag" is dedicated to my wonderful editor at HarperCollins, Ruth Katcher, who also edited "Raiders Night," which came out in paperback in July, 2007. "Raiders Night" is my toughest novel so far, about the aftermath of a hazing incident at a high school football training camp. Sort of a Friday Night Darks. The central character in the book and star of the team, Matt Rydek, has it all - an abusive father, a vengeful ex-girlfriend, a drug habit and a moral dilemma: Should he risk his college ride by telling the truth about that brutal Raiders night?

Apparently many athletic directors and principals were afraid the book would affect their hopes of turning high school sports into a pay-off; they disinvited me after their librarians and English teachers booked me for school appearances. I wrote about this for ESPN.COM and you can read it in the Jock Culture section.

I'll be using The Lipsite page for articles you might enjoy and whatever is currently on my mind. Right now, that's a piece I wrote for The New York Times on being a YA writer.

In the spring of 2006, Atheneum published "Heroes of Baseball." (If you must know, the short answer to the question most asked is "Get over it!" The question, of course, is what do I think about Barry Bonds' home-run record. The long answer is a question: "How did Roger Clemens develop such bad taste in music?" He needs to read Lois' book.)

While you are in a reading mood, pick up my son Sam Lipsyte's latest novel, "Home Land," and my daugher-in-law Ceridwen Morris' "From the Hips: A comprehensive, open-minded, uncensored, totally honest guide to pregnancy, birth and becoming a parent." Ceridwen's co-author is Rebecca Odes.

I've been traveling some these days, to the Texas Library Association conference in Dallas, and to the Positive Coaching Alliance's conference and awards banquet at Stanford University. PCA is a great outfit and an antidote to the Raiders Night mentality.

I've also been to Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y., to Kennesaw State University outside Atlanta, and to Wallkill (N.Y.) High School. Terrific schools all, but I met the greatest bunch of sports fans at the Homeless Veterans Residence Program in Menlo Park, California. Those guys rocked. And they have some pretty good teams, too.

And don't forget to drop me a line.