Nelson has been writing stories since the second grade. Other professions considered included astronaut, professional athlete, time traveler, explorer/colonist on the N. American continent between the years 1589-1720, and designer of solar-electric car-free towns.

Nelson found most of these positions were 1) already filled, 2) physically impossible through the known laws of science, 3) required an absurdly focused degree of study involving words like 'Boolean,' or 4) abnormal genetics. Actual jobs worked include newspaper reporter, Mandarin Chinese cryptologic linguist, NASA tech writer, and The Person Who Holds the Long Measuring Stick on a survey crew. Nelson's work with the space program won one of NASA's most prestigious honors, the NASA Silver Snoopy Award.

Growing up, Nelson never knew such a thing as young adult fiction existed and jumped straight from Dr. Suess and the Hardy Boys to authors like Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury, and Phillip K. Dick. A love of writers like Shirley Jackson, Emily Dickinson, Madeleine L'Engle, e.e. cummings, Louise Glück and others didn't come until years later.

Nelson's novel TEACH ME (Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers Group) won the 2004 Dona Vaughn SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant, and has been selected for numerous honors, including the Booksense Fall 2005 Kid Picks, Miami Herald Best Teen Novel of the Year 2005, Teenreads.com Best Books of the Year 2005, YALSA BBYA 2006 Best Books for Young Adults (nominated), Best Books for the Teen Age (2006) selected by the New York Public Library, Romance Times Best Books of 2005, Michigan Library Association 2006 Thumbs Up! Award (Top Twenty, voting ongoing), and the Horn Book Magazine 2005 Newcomers List.

His second book, BREATHE MY NAME, is due out from Razorbill in Fall 2007. The paperback version of TEACH ME will hit bookstores everywhere on March 22, 2007.