Philip Yancey is an American author who writes primarily about spiritual issues. His books have sold more than fifteen million copies in English and have been translated into forty languages, making him one of the best-selling contemporary Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, and What's So Amazing About Grace? in 1998. He is published by Hachette, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, InterVarsity Press, and Penguin Random House.
Biography
Yancey was born in Atlanta and grew up in nearby suburbs. When Yancey was one year old, his father, stricken with polio, died, after church members suggested he go offlife support in faith that God would heal him. This and other negative experiences with a rigid church contributed to Yancey's losing his faith at one point. After high school he attended college in South Carolina, where he met his wife, Janet. He went on to earn graduate degrees in Communications and English from Wheaton College Graduate School and the University of Chicago. While living in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs, in 1971 Yancey joined the staff of Campus Life magazine—a publication directed towards high school and college students—where he served as editor for eight years. For three decades Yancey contributed as an editor-at-large, for Christianity Today, and also wrote articles for publications including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Publishers Weekly, Chicago Magazine, Christian Century, and National Wildlife. As a journalist, he has interviewed two U. S. presidents, and other notables such as Bono, Billy Graham, and the authors Annie Dillard, John Updike, and Henri Nouwen. Former President Jimmy Carter has called Yancey "my favorite modern author." Yancey lives in Colorado, working as a freelance writer. Traveling widely for speaking engagements, he has visited 85 countries. Yancey suffered a broken neck in a motor vehicle accident in February 2007 but recovered well. In August that same year he completed his goal of climbing all 54 of Colorado's -plus peaks, the final three after his accident.
