Michael Gerard Bauer was an Australian English teacher but is now a full-time Children's and Young Adult author.

Bauer was born in Brisbane and attended Marist College, Ashgrove before attending the University of Queensland. He completed an Arts Degree with a triple Major in English literature and became a teacher of Economics and English in Brisbane and Ipswich secondary schools. In 2003, Bauer won the inaugural Writesmall Short Story competition at the Brisbane Writers Festival.

Bauer lives in Brisbane Queensland. The Running Man, his first novel has been well received, winning the 2005 CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers; was listed as one of the top 10 books for young adults for 2004 in Magpies magazine; and was short-listed for the 2005 NSW Premier's Award, Victorian Premier's Award, and the 2006 South Australian Festival Awards for Literature. The Running Man also won the Courier Mail

The Courier-Mail

The Courier-Mail is a daily newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia. Owned by News Limited, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, in Brisbane's...

 2005 People's Choice Award for Younger Readers. In 2008 it won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Award – a German Bishops’ award for promoting Christian values in children’s literature. The presentation ceremony took place in Mainz, Germany in June 2008. Bauer has also written six other books, Don't Call Me Ishmael

Don't Call Me Ishmael

Don't Call Me Ishmael is a young adult novel by Australian author Michael Gerard Bauer. It is about Ishmael Leseur, a 14-year-old boy, and his experiences in Year Nine. It won the 2008 award for children's literature at Writers' Week, Australia's oldest writers' festival...

(2006), Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs (2007), Dinosaur Knights (2008), You Turkeys (2009), Just a Dog (2010) and Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel (2011).
Don't Call Me Ishmael won the 2008 South Australian Festival Award for Literature; the 2007 Children's Peace Prize; the Children’s Book Council of Australia Junior Judges Award in 2007; and was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Award and the 2007 CBCA Award for Older Readers. It was selected for the 2007 White Ravens festival at the Bologna Book Fair

Bologna Children's Book Fair

The Bologna Children's Book Fair or La fiera del libro per ragazzi is the leading professional fair for children's books in the world.Since 1963, it is held yearly for four days in March or April in Bologna, Italy...

. The sequel, Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs, was awarded a Notable Book at the CBCA Awards for Older Readers in 2008. Just a Dog was a Honour Book for the 2011 CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers category. It won the 2011 Queensland Premier's Literary Award, Younger Readers. The third book in the Ishmael trilogy was released in July 2011 and is entitled Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel.
Bauer's novels have been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, French, Korean, and Norwegian, and have been published in the USA by Greenwillow, Harper-Collins Books, in England by Templar books, and in Germany by Carl Hanser.

Novels

• The Running Man (2004)
• Don't Call Me Ishmael
  Don't Call Me Ishmael
  Don't Call Me Ishmael is a young adult novel by Australian author Michael Gerard Bauer. It is about Ishmael Leseur, a 14-year-old boy, and his experiences in Year Nine. It won the 2008 award for children's literature at Writers' Week, Australia's oldest writers' festival...
  
  (2006)
• Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs
  Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs
  Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs is a fictional book by Michael Gerard Bauer, released in 2007. It is the first sequel to Don't Call Me Ishmael. Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs won the "Book Council of Australia: Junior Judges Award" in 2007....
  
  (2007)
• Dinosaur Knights (2008)
• You Turkeys (2009)
• Just a Dog (2010)
• Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel (2011)