Dan McCauley
Hello! My name is Dan. I am an educator and the author of the Thank You, World series with Free Spirit publishing and an upcoming children's sports series with Curiosity Unlocked.
I was raised in the Bronx by Little League coaches who bought me cleats, soccer teammates who became my family, and a mom who painted my childhood ceilings red, gold, and orange. I learned early that love can take many forms, and it was these kinds of love that I used to not only make sense of the world, but eventually, how I learned to write in it.
I wasn't known for being a big reader or strong writer growing up. I struggled to keep up with my reading homework and life made it hard to focus on school in general. Instead, I slowly discovered my need to write and make sense of the world in the back of my eighth-grade math notebook, where I secretly wrote poems while waiting for the school bell to ring to play baseball.
During the spring of eighth grade, a beloved coach and volunteer in my little league community passed away. I wrote a poem to make sense of the loss. Months later, after submitting that poem to a contest, I learned over the school's loudspeaker the poem was selected to be published. It was the first time in my life I realized writing done in private could find its way to other people.
The worlds of writing, education, and sports started converging for me in high school, and each allowed me a way to imagine more possibilities for my life. While they mostly worked harmoniously, sometimes balancing these worlds was harder. One day, I had to leave a preseason varsity baseball game to perform in the quarterfinals of a poetry slam.
In college, my relationship with writing, education, and sports grew. They had long helped me make sense of my own life, but I started to understand how they could also help other people build connection and imagine new possibilities. I studied storytelling, teaching, and child and adolescent mental health. I volunteered in adult literacy classrooms. I continued performing poetry on big stages and coaching sports throughout the city. And I learned what values I wanted to live out for the rest of my life.
Those experiences led me back to the Bronx, where I began my career as an English teacher and continued coaching sports. Since moving to Los Angeles, I have continued supporting young people in classrooms and one-on-one as a learning specialist and educational therapist. I've spent over a decade working with young people. My life experiences also continue to shape the stories I write today, too.
Whether working with young people in classrooms or spending parts of my days as a writer, my work is governed by a simple belief: kids have the strength and agency to meet big moments, the ability to discover and honor what is special to them, and the capacity to find their way through difficult times.
When I'm not writing or teaching, I can be found taking walks around my LA neighborhood with my wife, watching sports, or visiting New York to spend time with my friends and family.
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