Schooled

Paul Langan is a white American author who grew up in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, where he attended public schools. After enrolling in community college, he transferred to La Salle University to study creative writing. While in college, he lived with international students, traveled to Kenya with his roommate, and also taught literature in a Philadelphia prison. Langan was inspired to become a writer and teacher and earned a master’s degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. While working as an editorial assistant at Townsend Press, he developed The Bluford Series, young adult novels that draw on his own experiences of bullying at school and growing up without a father. Through the series, Langan seeks to engage teenagers—especially those who typically do not read widely for pleasure—in literature.

Langan aims to create compelling stories that grapple with ongoing social issues like school challenges, class differences, bullying, and racial discrimination. His most acclaimed novel, The Bully (2002), explores the struggles of a Black teenager who experiences bullying at school while illuminating the complexity of race relations and economic inequities. Apart from The Bluford Series, Langan is also the author of standalone novels such as Payback (2002) and Brothers in Arms (2004).