George Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C. in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.
Pelecanos is the author of fifteen crime novels set in and around Washington, D.C., including A Firing Offense, Nick's Trip, Shoedog, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, The Night Gardener, and The Turnaround. He has been the recipient of the Raymond Chandler award in Italy, the Falcon award in Japan, and the Grand Prix Du Roman Noir in France. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire and several collections. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, GQ, and numerous other publications.
Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught, Whatever and BlackMale and was the U.S. distributor of John Woo's cult classic, The Killer and Richard Bugajski's Interrogation. Most recently, he was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award and the AFI Award. He was a writer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and three children. He is at work on his next novel.
From the author's website
This biography was last updated on 01/20/2011.
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