 |
| It took me a year to grow hair. This is a rare, but treasured photo of me and my father. |
I grew up on a sliver of land surrounded by cornfields and cow pastures. With my sister and two brothers, I explored empty barns, skated frozen fields and watched setting suns. Inside, I hollowed out and painted eggs, molded paper-mache puppets and folded cardboard into intricate ornaments. I read Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and old biographies of famous people like Daniel Boone and Molly Pitcher. It was the pages of my grandfather's yellowing encyclopedias that I was most captivated by.
 |
I was the quiet one,
always observing, but saying very little |
In high school, I developed an interest in technology and pursued it in college. For roughly fifteen years, I worked as a computer programmer, systems designer and consultant, analyzing, coding and testing programs and systems that were often very complex. That experience taught me to ask questions, to be precise and to persevere, but creativity was missing. After getting married and having three children, I started writing professionally.
 |
| The cows knew where to find food. Sometimes, they'd escape and stand in the road blocking traffic. Every now and then I'd get to see a newborn calf. |
 |
| Kindergarten report card notes a "reflective personality" - click to expand |
As a freelance science writer, I pursue projects involving state-of-the-art science, technology and biotechnology and their use to advance medicine, study wildlife and protect the environment. As a writer of literary nonfiction, I write science as a story, sprinkled with art.
 |
| I got to hold the snake's head. Boy, did I hate that hairdo. |
 |
| 5th grade report card mentions science - click to expand |
My work has been published in numerous national magazines for children. Over the years, I've contacted scientists all over the world to research and write about their work. In 2008, it was an honor and a pleasure to interview two great scientists that went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry! In 2010, I was honored to receive the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children's Discovery Award for Nonfiction. In 2012, I was a Woods Hole Fellow.
 |
| I could have spent more time hiking Root Glacier in Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, Alaska (2008) |
I'm a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, National Association of Science Writers and Appalachian Mountain Club.
You can read more about me in these interviews:
Ana Del C. Dye - 2/9/13
Brittney Breakey - 3/7/12
