Cynthia Rylant
|
|
Cynthia Rylant (born June 6, 1954) is the author of over 60 children's books in English and Spanish, including works in fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Rylant was born in Hopewell, Virginia. Her parents divorced when she was four years old, and she was sent to live with her grandparents in Cool Ridge, West Virginia while her mother attended nursing school. Four years later she moved back with her mother, who had relocated to Beaver, West Virginia.
Growing up in the Appalachian region of the U.S. during the 1960s, Rylant lived in a very depressed economic environment. As a result, she never saw children's books as a child; she was not introduced to the genre until she was 23 years old. However her childhood was the major influence on her works, and most of them deal with life in the Appalachian region.
Rylant earned a B.A. degree from Morris Harvey College in 1975 and a M.A. degree from Marshall University in 1976. Unable to find a job in her field after completing college, she first worked as a waitress and later as a librarian, where she became acquainted with children's books. She wrote her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains, a year later. It took her an hour to complete. This book earned an American Book Award in 1982.
Rylant was awarded a Newbery Medal for her book Missing May in 1993. That year also she donated her manuscripts to the library of Kent State University, where she had received a M.L.S. degree in 1981, and relocated to Eugene, Oregon, where she still resides.
External link
- Cynthia Rylant's website (http://www.cynthiarylant.com/)