BRYANT WIENEKE

Bryant Wieneke was born in Los Angeles and received his B.A. from the University of California, Riverside. He put his liberal arts education to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, teaching students at an agricultural school how to plow fields and castrate bulls. In 1982, he received his MPA from New York University and pursued a career in administration at Columbia University, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. He is married with two sons and lives in Santa Barbara, California. 

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His current project is focused on the AHA! moments of innovative scientists, examining the nature of genius. This creative non-fiction series allows young adults to join historical figures on their journeys of discovery. Larger-than-life men and women become human as they make discoveries that will ultimately change the world. 

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Mr. Wieneke has also written a provocative series of anti-war books for the post-9/11 era. Set against the magnificent backdrop of the Sahara Desert, the Priority Series follows a reluctant warrior through nine action-packed suspense novels, exploring the possibilities of non-violence in a dangerous world.

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His first full-length work was his lighthearted Peace Corps journal, now published as A Dry and Thirsty Land. In 1999, Nova Science Publishers (Kroshka Imprint) published Winning Without the Spin, an account of the hard-fought Congressional campaign run by a brilliant and whimsical religious studies professor. Mr. Wieneke served as operations manager for the campaign.

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In May 2016 Mr. Wieneke was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. His CT/PET scan looked like the lights on a Christmas tree, showing cancer throughout his body and into his brain. He would not have lasted more than a few months, were it not for the successful administration of immunotherapy drugs that had recently been approved by the FDA. This harrowing and uplifting adventure became the sole focus of his writing, and he published Melanoma without a Cause in 2017 to share his experience.