Forged out of twelve years of homelessness and addiction on the streets of New York City, Lee Stringer’s landmark memoir, Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street--which ultimately conveys the irrepressibility of hope--was one the top ten books recommended by both the New York Times and USA Today when it debuted in 1998. It has since been translated into 20 languages on four continents and has been optioned for both film and stage productions. As a preteen, Stringer was consigned, for two years, to a special boarding school for kids at risk, an experience he hauntingly vivifies in his second award-winning memoir, 2004’s Sleepaway School: Stories From a Boy’s Life. In 2002, he collaborated with novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, on Like shaking Hands With God: a Conversation About Writing, a monograph about how writing intersects with each of their lives. Currently at work on yet another memoir, entitled White People, Stringer, 59, resides in Mamaroneck, New York, serves on five nonprofit boards, directs a local nonprofit program that provides free one-on-one homework assistance to young people, whom for various reasons, do not get it in their homes.