William Bernhardt

In 2000, he was honored with the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award, given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large."

In 2010, he said that he was going to put the series on hiatus to focus on other projects, but in early 2017, he announced that he was bringing the character back in a novel to be titled, Justice Returns.

Bernhardt spent over two years researching that book, which provides a compelling solution to the unsolved mystery of the identity of The Mad Butcher of Cleveland, generally considered America's first true serial killer.

Successfully published graduates of Bernhardt's writing seminars include New York Times-bestselling author Aprilynne Pike, UK national bestseller Sarah Rees Brennan, Oklahoma Book Award-winner Sheldon Russell, Oklahoma Book Award nominee Audrey Streetman, Greg Field, Michael W. Hinkle, Callie Hutton, Lela Davidson, Rick Stiller, Angela Christina Archer, Tamara Grantham, Bill Fernandez, Kenneth Andrus, Paul Dalzell, John Biggs, Bill Wetterman, Sabrina A Fish, Lara Wells, Burke Holbrook, Rick Ludwig, and more than a dozen other published writers.

He has published books by acclaimed authors such as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist N. Scott Momaday, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Janis Ian, and PBS newsman Jim Lehrer.

He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife, Lara Bernhardt, the novelist (The Wantland Files) and audiobook narrator, and their children.