Gwen Banta

Gwen Banta is an American author known for her diverse career roles, including real estate and literature. She is best known for her crime thrillers and coming-of-age stories.

Gwen Banta was born in New York. She received her B.A. and M.S. degrees from Butler University and earned a language certification from The Defense Language Institute.

Her literary career began with the novel The Fly Strip (2016), a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of racial and social unrest in rural Indiana in 1960. It received the Opus Magnum Discovery Award for New Literature-Honorable Mention. Her second book, Inside Sam Lerner (2018), a chilling crime thriller set in New Orleans, also received critical acclaim.

In 2022, Gwen published The Train Jumper, a novel about 19-year-old Kat Caswell, who lost her best friend in an accident in 1958. To escape her past, Kat hops on a freight train, leaving rural Indiana. She finds that the danger of train jumping distracts her from her pain. On the Southern Belle Railway, she meets Hilda, who offers her a job at a club in New Orleans.

Kat adapts to the atmosphere of the Vieux Carre and bonds with Leni, a young immigrant worker with a mysterious past. When immigration authorities come for Leni, Kat helps her escape, leading them on a journey of survival and significant choices. The Train Jumper is a narrative that intertwines the characters' stories through their railway journeys.

In addition to her writing career, Gwen Banta is a Global Real Estate Advisor and Certified Negotiator with Sotheby's International Realty. She specializes in Hollywood Hills real estate.

Gwen Banta resides in Los Angeles.

Photo credit: X @SherlockofHomes