I’m David Austin (on the right) and I am a retired public school history and English teacher. I graduated from Temple University in 1980 and earned a Masters in English/Creative Writing from Rutgers University in 1999. I used to publish a lot of poetry in very small literary magazines, most of which no longer exist. Over the last twenty years or so, when I wasn’t teaching, I was writing book reviews for Friends Journal, a monthly magazine published by and for members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Small Miracle is my first book. But not my last.

When I’m not working on my next project, I’m reading (mostly history and non-fiction); playing guitar (badly) and ukulele (a little better); following the Philadelphia Phillies, the Baltimore Orioles, and Arsenal Football Club; traveling; doing Quaker stuff; and hanging out with Murphy the Wonderdoodle.

Charles Middleberg, whose story I tell in Small Miracle, was a hidden child in France during World War Two. After the war, he and the surviving members of his family emigrated to the United States where he began his new life. Charles has spent many years sharing his story with young people and adults throughout the South Jersey/Delaware Valley area, which is how I got to know him. He visited with my students and inspired them with his story of hope, love, and perseverance. It was his message of tolerance and determination that moved me to want to share his story with the wider world. I am so very grateful that he allowed me to do so. I am proud to be his friend.