William Gurstelle

William Gurstelle (born March 29, 1956) is an American nonfiction author, magazine writer, and inventor. He is a feature columnist for Make magazine and a columnist and contributing editor at Popular Science magazine. Previously, he was the Pyrotechnics and Ballistics Editor at Popular Mechanics magazine. He is also the author of several science “how-to” books published by Crown Books/Random House and Chicago Review Press. His best known work is Backyard Ballistics, which according to Newsweek magazine, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Other popular titles are Absinthe and Flamethrowers, and The Art of the Catapult. In 2011, Publishers Weekly stated Gurstelle had sold more than 300,000 of his books.According to James A. Buczynski in Library Journal, Gurstelle's writing "balances scientific explanations of the technologies with profiles of the people who [explore] them."