About Eric

In a decidedly eclectic career, Eric Metaxas has written for VeggieTales, Chuck Colson, and the New York Times, three things not ordinarily in the same sentence. The Hartford Courant has declared figuring him out “like trying to stick a pushpin in a cyclone.” Nevertheless, let us try.

Eric Metaxas was born in New York City in 1963, on his father’s 36th birthday. He grew up in Danbury, Connecticut, attending the public schools there, and graduated from Yale University. At Yale he made a literary splash as editor of the Yale Record, the nation’s oldest college humor magazine, and a subsequent literal splash when, following the 100th Yale-Harvard Game, he commandeered a successful effort to throw Harvard’s goalpost into the Charles. At graduation Eric was awarded two senior prizes for his undergraduate fiction. He was also “Class Day Speaker”, co-writing and -delivering “The Class History”, a satirical address that is a Yale commencement tradition — in the process upstaging Dick Cavett, the next speaker. They would not speak for nearly two decades.

Metaxas’ humor writing was first published in the Atlantic Monthly, and has frequently appeared in The New York Times. Woody Allen has called these pieces “quite funny.” Eric’s book and movie reviews, essays, and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Regeneration Quarterly, Christianity Today, National Review Online, Beliefnet, and First Things. He has been awarded fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony for his short stories. The cult-classic Don’t You Believe It! — his book-length parody of the Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not!” books — led novelist Mark Helprin to dub Metaxas “the true heir to the Far Side’s Gary Larson.”

From 1988-1992, Metaxas was editorial director and head writer for Rabbit Ears Productions writing over 20 children’s videos and books narrated by such actors as Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Sir John Gielgud, Danny Glover, Sigourney Weaver, John Candy, Michael Caine, Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Jodie Foster, Emma Thompson, and Raul Julia. His Rabbit Ears videos have won numerous Parent’s Choice Awards and three Grammy nominations for Best Children’s Recording; they all aired on Showtime and as popular audio programs on NPR’s Rabbit Ears Radio, hosted by Mel Gibson and Meg Ryan, whose radio scripts Eric has also written. Parenting magazine and others have called Metaxas “the unsung hero” of Rabbit Ears and a “children’s author nonpareil.”

Mr. Metaxas’ The Birthday ABC was chosen as a 1995 “Pick of the List” by the American Bookseller’s Association. Reviewers said the book’s light verse “sparkled” and “sizzled,” comparing it with Odgen Nash, Edward Lear, and Lewis Carroll. Eric’s many other children’s books include the Angel Award-winning Prince of Egypt A to Z, a tie-in to the Dreamworks film; and the acclaimed Uncle Mugsy & the Terrible Twins of Christmas. Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving was awarded an Amazon.com “Number One Bestseller” Award in 1999.

Metaxas was for two years a writer and editor for Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint, a nationally syndicated daily radio program with over 400 stations and a weekly audience of five million. He then worked as a writer for VeggieTales. Lyle the Kindly Viking, which Eric co-wrote, was named Number One Direct-to-Home Video at the 2002 World Animation Conference. He provides the voice of the narrator on Esther, and in 3-2-1 Penguins! provides those of “President Wait-Your-Turn” and “Vacuum #10″.

Eric’s children’s books for VeggieTales include the #1 bestseller God Made You Special! (over 550,000 copies in print, with translations in Spanish and Portuguese), as well as Even Fish Slappers Deserve a Second-Chance and The Pirates Who (Usually) Don’t Do Anything, both also bestsellers. He is the author of the unproduced Gourd of the Baskervilles and an unproduced VeggieBook, The Boy Who Cried Waffle.

Metaxas has been featured on CNN, Hannity & Colmes, and many other television programs. He has been a featured guest on many radio programs, including NPR’s Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation, The Bob Grant Show, Janet Parshall’s America, Monica Crowley, and The Alan Colmes Show.

He is the founder and host of Socrates in the City: Conversations on the Examined Life, a monthly event of”entertaining and thought-provoking discussions on ‘life, God, and other small topics’” that features such speakers as Sir John Polkinghorne, Dr. Armand Nicholi, Os Guinness and Peter Kreeft, and which was recently mentioned in a front-page story in the New York Times. The New Canaan Society, of which Eric is a founding member, was also mentioned in the article.

Eric has debated at the Oxford Union, the world’s oldest debating society, and speaks widely on a variety of topics. His no-holds-barred introductions of such figures as U. S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and former Attorney General John Ashcroft have made him much sought after as an emcee, moderator, and bona fide jive turkey.

Eric’s acclaimed biography, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery was published by HarperSanFrancisco, and is the “official companion book” to the feature film, also titled Amazing Grace. The book was #23 on the New York Times Bestseller list, and has been lauded by Stanley Crouch (”…a superb history of the British fight against slavery”; Former NYC Congressman Floyd Flake (”magnificent… will stand as a living landmark…”); John Wilson (”a crackling bonfire of clarity and truth.”); and many others.

Eric’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask), came out in 2005, and was praised by Ann B. Davis, Alice on The Brady Bunch (”I am absolutely smitten with this book!”), Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (”The difficulty is not to gush.”); and a sequel, titled Everything Else You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask) has just been published.

Eric serves on the vestry of Calvary/St. George’s Episcopal Church, and lives in Manhattan, New York, with his wife and daughter.