Austin Carty was born and raised in High Point, North Carolina. At twenty-one, he left school to self-publish his first novel. In 2009, after a prolonged hiatus, he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Literature from High Point University.

In 2006 Austin appeared on CBS’s Survivor. He has since become a highly sought after inspirational speaker and travels the country addressing audiences both young and old, Christian and secular. Audiences find his irreverent spin on reverent topics to be both insightful and refreshing.

Currently working on several new projects, High Points and Lows: Life, Faith, and Figuring It All Out, to be released by Penguin Plume in late January of 2010, is his first work of nonfiction.