Noah Bly is a published author of fiction who also writes under the pen name Bart Yates. Bly was born in 1962 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and moved with his family to Lamoni, Iowa, in 1969. His father served as the Dean of Students at Graceland College, and his mother taught business courses there. Bly graduated from Lamoni High School in 1981, Drake University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance, and Boston University in 1988 with a Master of Music degree in Woodwind Performance.
After a brief and inappropriate stint as a bursar at The Boston Conservatory, Bly began teaching private music lessons in Massachusetts in 1989. He moved to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1999, where he took a novel-writing class taught by Gordon Mennenga at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. This class served as the catalyst for his first novel, "Leave Myself Behind," which was published in 2003 by Kensington Books. Bly has since written several more novels, including "The Third Hill North Of Town," which he wrote under the pen name Noah Bly.
In addition to writing and teaching music lessons, Bly has also taught writing workshops at the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival. When he's not working, Bly can often be found reading a book and enjoying a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.