Born: July 8, 1933Died: April 10, 2016 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Editor, publisher, and award-winning children’s book author James Cross Giblin was born in Cleveland, but was raised in Painesville, Ohio. After receiving his B.A. in 1954 from Case Western Reserve University, he settled in New York City, earning his MFA in creative writing at Columbia in …
Read More James Cross GiblinBorn: 1949 Ohio connection: Birth Warren Many readers assume George is British, so accurate is her depiction of British life, but Susan Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio, in 1949. When she was 18 months old, her father moved the family to the San Francisco Bay area, in part because he hated the Midwestern …
Read More George, (Susan) ElizabethBorn: 1964 Ohio connection: Birth Washington Court House Margaret Peterson grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. Her father, John Albert Peterson was a farmer and her mother, Marilee Grace Peterson, worked as a nurse. Margaret received her B.A. in creative writing and journalism from Miami University of Ohio in 1986. She …
Read More Margaret Peterson HaddixBorn: February 1, 1901Died: May 22, 1967 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland James Langston Hughes was born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri, the son of James Nathaniel and Carrie Mercer (Langston) Hughes. While he was an infant, his parents separated and he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where his grandmother raised him. When his grandmother died, he moved …
Read More Langston HughesBorn: 1961 Ohio connection: Resident Kent Born in Tuskegee, Alabama and raised in Windham, Ohio, Angela Johnson, the award-winning author of more than 40 books for children and young adults, attended Kent State University before dropping out to pursue a career as a children’s author. Working as a nanny, she was employed by Newbery-Medal-winning author Cynthia …
Read More Johnson, AngelaBorn: July 8, 1940 Died: April 30, 2020 Ohio connection: Birth Kilbourne Janet Hickman was born Janet Gephart, daughter of Bernard Franklin and Pauline (Williams) Gephart, in Kilbourne, Ohio, in 1940. She received a B.S. in 1960, an M.A. in 1964, and a Ph.D. in 1979, all from Ohio State University. She married John Hickman in 1961, …
Read More Janet HickmanBorn: March 12, 1934Died: February 19, 2002 Ohio connection: Birth Yellow Springs “If you can dream it, then you can have it.” A powerful axiom that encapsulates the accomplishments and triumphs of its speaker, Virginia Hamilton. Descendant of a maternal grandfather who escaped from slavery in Virginia to settle in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Hamilton grew …
Read More Virginia Hamilton(Sharon Rigg) Born: 1945 Ohio connection: Birth South Euclid Sharon Creech, a writer of more than 20 picture books for children and novels for young adults (YA), was born and raised in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. She grew up there as part of, as she says, “a noisy and rowdy family.” Relatives told …
Read More Creech, SharonBorn: 1979 Ohio Connection: Birth Morrow County Mindy L. McGinnis, an award-winning novelist of young adult (YA) literature, grew up in a rural town in Ohio. In 2001, she graduated magna cum laude from Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio with a B. A. in English Literature and Religion. When she was in eighth grade, McGinnis knew …
Read More Mindy McGinnisBorn: September 19, 1957Died: December 26, 2015 Ohio connection: Resident Cincinnati Children’s book author and educator Andrea Cheng was born in El Paso, Texas. The daughter of Hungarian immigrants who grew up and lived most of her life in Cincinnati, Ohio, she and her two siblings grew up in an extended family, which Cheng once described as …
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