Born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Stephen Lewis holds a doctorate in American Literature from New York University, and he is Professor of English Emeritus at Suffolk Community College, on Long Island, New York. He now lives with his wife and daughter on five acres in a restored farmhouse on Old Mission Peninsula in northern lower Michigan.
Throughout his career, he has been both a
writer and a teacher of writing. As a teacher, he has worked with
college level and adult learner students in a variety of settings from
standard classrooms, to online, to one on one tutorials, to small group
workshops. In all of these environments, he has had success
encouraging student writers to improve their skills. In a
number of instances, these successes have led directly to publication.
His writing career
began with a college textbook publication in 1970, followed by four
more texts over the next twenty years. During this period, he
also published short stories, poetry, and articles. His first
novel, The Monkey Rope was published
in 1990 followed by And Baby Makes None (1991)
two mysteries set in Brooklyn and published by Walker &
Company. He turned his attention to a different time and place,
New England in the seventeenth century, for Mysteries of
Colonial Times, written for Berkley, and drawing upon
his expertise as a scholar of New England Puritanism. The
Dumb Shall Sing, the first of this series was published
August, 1999, followed by The Blind in Darkness
in May, 2000, and The Sea Hath Spoken
January, 2001. His historical novel, Murder On Old
Mission, put out in 2005 by Arbutus Press, was a finalist
in the historical fiction category of ForeWord Magazine’s
book of the year awards. His most recent novel, Stone
Cold Dead, was submitted by Arbutus to the 2007
Edgars.
He continues working in various genres, having
recently published "The Visitor" in Chariton
Review,“ and had "Eagles Rising" accepted by Palo Alto Review.