About
Jan Goldstein was born to an award-winning poet-mother and a restaurateur/actor- father who put him on stage at age 9 where, as a young boy, he performed in professional theatre with casts that included Jon Voight, Susan Anspach, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Jason Miller. In high school, he played rhythm guitar and was lead singer for ta rock band who won their state’s Battle of the Bands. In his childhood his grandmother introduced him to Maria Von Trapp and her family in Stowe, Vermont, a relationship that continued through his teen years and beyond, when, as an adult and author, he returned as writer-in-residence to the Trapp Family Lodge, under the warm auspices of Maria’s son Johannes and her grandson, Sam. After a national award for composing a rock musical in college with buddy David Lash, he studied abroad in Israel, experienced war, got married and became a father to three amazing kids, Yaffa, Batsheva, and Elisha.
Later, as a single dad with primary responsibility for raising his children, he found himself developing an affinity for a female voice listening to his daughters, which he often uses in his writing. In addition to having been raised by strong women like his mother and grandmother, he found female mentor-artists who helped shape his life. Meeting his wife Bonnie (and her eight year-old son, Ari) years later, was the tipping point to his writing career. After penning two works of nonfiction, hailed by the likes of Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, Deepak Chopra, and Arianna Huffington, he became an LA Times and national bestselling author of nonfiction and fiction, penning novels: All That Matters, The Prince of Nantucket, and The Bride Will Keep Her Name, currently being developed as a motion picture. His work has been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages and has been selected for the New York Times Hot List as well as by the Book of the Month Club, the Doubleday Book Club, and the Quality Paperback Club. Jan is the recipient of a Presidential Award for work in fostering arts in the inner city, has been the keynote speaker for the National Conference on Family Literacy, and been chosen as an international artist-in-residence at Ireland’s famed Tyrone Guthrie Centre.
Jan lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Bonnie, a noted clinical psychologist, and their actress daughter, Shira, soon headed off for college.