Robert Spencer Knotts’ accomplished writing career already has evolved several times, a journey that began for him as a teenager and continues to the present day. It has been an evolution of both substance and style, from staff writer to independent writer, from journalist to author, from more commercial pieces to more literary works.
Most recently, Knotts' writing has focused on the creation of intensely emotional plays, poems and Internet works that explore psychological and philosophical themes. These themes evolved directly from his personal experiences over the past three decades.
Since 2000, Knotts has written three innovative dramas and several poems exploring his belief that our human tendencies toward profound self-doubt cause both personal and social problems of unrecognized magnitude. These dramas include a one-act play about teen suicide, “Never Nothin’ Again No More,” commissioned and produced by Miami’s famed Coconut Grove Playhouse in 2001. More recently, he completed the full-length play “In Mordant Whispers,” which had its first public reading at South Florida's award-winning GableStage in March 2006 and “Empath 52 Equals You,” acknowledged as the first fully interactive narrative drama written for the Internet. In 2006, his new short comedy, "This (Bleeping World," received its first staged reading at the Studio Theatre of Wellington in Wellington, Florida.
He also has published 24 fiction and non-fiction books, including one novel for adults and 23 books for young readers. The non-fiction works largely have centered around science, history and sports. His publishers include Heinemann Library, Domhan Books, Children’s Press, Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers and Sports Illustrated for Kids. These books appeared under the name Bob Knotts or the pseudonym, M.D. Spenser.
His poem entitled, "September 11, 2001," has been chosen for the massive 9/11 sculpture under creation in Greensboro, North Carolina, a nationally recognized project built with girders from the World Trade Center. This poem has received praise from Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author, Elie Wiesel. Knotts also has published and performed his poetry.
For several years, Knotts wrote regularly for top national magazines, publications that have included Sports Illustrated, USA Weekend, Cigar Aficionado, Travel & Leisure, the New York Times, the Humanist and Reader's Digest. And he served from 1999 to 2004 as contributing editor at Newsweek’s travel magazine, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel.
Formerly, Knotts was one of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's main writers and reporters. The Tribune Company newspaper tapped him frequently for high-profile assignments in South Florida and around the world, nominating him for the Pulitzer Prize in both feature writing and national reporting categories.
His extensive investigative reporting at the paper included a year-long expose of air bag injuries written five years before the federal government acknowledged the problem. Knotts' reports appeared in newspapers across the country and were cited during national news programs on CNN, ABC and other major broadcast outlets. His consumer investigations also shut down literally dozens of fraudulent South Florida businesses and directly resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of a British national known in England as "King Con," a notorious con artist who provided unsafe treatments in Fort Lauderdale to AIDS and cancer patients from around the world. This case became the basis for his novel, "Hard News."
Before this, Knotts was for several years a prominent on-air TV and radio reporter/anchor in Burlington, Vermont for CBS affiliates, where he broke many major stories about politics, development, airline safety and other issues. He also has covered classical music and the arts as a freelance correspondent for Vermont's largest newspapers and hosted his own weekly classical music radio program.
Earlier, Knotts published fiction and poetry in national literary magazines such as The Poet and had a radio play produced in the San Francisco Bay area.
Knotts writes and performs a wide variety of original music each week for his podcast on The Humanity Project website at www.thehumanityproject.com. He also was commissioned in 2007 by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau to compose and perform the original jazz piece used as a theme for the bureau's podcast.
In addition, he composed and performed a variety of original music for his 2001 stage play, "Never Nothin' Again No More." The play music included rap, with multiple background tracks performed by Knotts on percussion and harmonica, as well as a complex piano score he also performed.
Knotts is a lifelong drummer and percussionist and has played frequently as leader, member or guest artist in blues, rock and jazz bands. In addition to the drums, he has often performed publicly on chromatic and blues harmonicas, the piano and Dobro slide guitar. Knotts also has written and copyrighted numerous songs and instrumental tunes.
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Knotts was born on December 9 in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to the Detroit area, he has lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Switzerland (briefly), Cleveland, San Francisco and, for many years, Vermont.
A licensed race car driver and avid traveler, he is working to learn to speak, read and write Chinese. Knotts is divorced, with no children, and now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
