'It happens in layers'

 

“Overthe years, my students influenced me greatly, and I've learned many lessonsfrom them. I have an immense amount of respect for them, and I think thatrespect for your audience is the foremost requirement for anyone who wants towrite.” – Susan Campbell Bartoletti

 

Bornin Harrisburg, PA on this date in 1958, Bartoletti was a Junior High School teacherfor 20 years before turning to writing.  "I felt immensesatisfaction in watching my students grow as writers and I wanted to practicewhat I preached,” she said.   Her first short story sold in1989, her first children’s book, Silver at Night, in 1992. 

 

Thewinner of numerous awards including the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction, theJane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Newberry Honor Medal, she stillteaches, but now her students are master’s degree candidates in various writingprograms or students in writing workshops around the nation.  Amongher 16 books are nonfiction bestsellers Growing Up in Coal Country and Kidson Strike and novels like Dancing With Dziadziu and No Man’sLand. 

 

Characterdevelopment has been a crucial part of Bartoletti's writing process.  “When I create a character, it happens inlayers,” she said.  “The more I write and revise, the better Iunderstand my characters.”