Don J. Snyder

Don J. Snyder is an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for novels such as The Cliff Walk (1997), Of Time and Memory (1999), Night Crossing (2001) and The Tin Nose Shop (2022). Themes of memory, war, and family history often feature in his books. The Tin Nose Shop was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club. Snyder is also recognised for his memoir The Cliff Walk, which was featured on Oprah Winfrey's television show.

Don J. Snyder was born in 1969 in Pennsylvania. Snyder began his writing life by teaching himself for twelve years in isolation. He later described his determination: “All I wanted was to become a novelist because I believed that people can buy what they want at the mall or online. And even what they need. But not what they long for. They long for meaning. And that’s where serious writers come in.”

At 27, he worked at a newspaper in Maine. There, he encountered the story that led to his first book, A Soldier’s Disgrace (1987). The book investigated the case of a Korean War soldier accused of treason. Snyder spent six years fighting for access to records and eventually proved the man’s innocence.

Paramount Pictures purchased the film rights. The success of this book, as well as an early novel draft, earned Snyder entry to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He received the program’s highest fellowship and later won a James A. Michener fellowship. He also taught writing for a year at Colby College.

During his years in Ireland, he wrote early in the mornings while raising four young children. Returning to Maine, Snyder worked in construction after losing his teaching post. The experience led to The Cliff Walk (1997), a memoir later sold to Disney for film rights, after he discovered the truth about his birth mother and published Of Time and Memory (1999) with Alfred A. Knopf.

In 2001, Snyder published Night Crossing, a novel shaped by his reporting on the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland. Several more books followed, including Winter Dreams (2004). Later, he wrote Walking with Jack (2013), a memoir about golf and his relationship with his son.
In 2019, Snyder founded the Caddie School for Soldiers in St Andrews, Scotland. His novel, The Tin Nose Shop (2022), told the story of disfigured First World War veterans and brought him widespread recognition.

His most recent novel, Johnny Cooper’s Field (2025), follows the story of Johnny, a homeless man who rescues Elizabeth on Christmas Eve. Her wealthy father opposes their love, and the baby born of their relationship is given away. Twenty years later, the son, unaware of his origins, becomes entwined in the rediscovery of his parents’ lost love while finding love of his own.

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