Deborah Hopkinson’s first picture book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, was immediately an award-winner, and she has continued to gather awards for her books ever since. All three of her books published in 2006 have outstanding reviews: Firestorm, a Novel of San Francisco,1906; Up Before Daybreak, Cotton & People in America; and Skyboys, How They Built the Empire State Building.

Her books for young people are all based in history, be they biographies, nonfiction, or historical fiction. She is highly regarded for her historical research and accuracy of her writing.

She works full time as Director of Foundation Relations at the Oregon State University Foundation. She has two children, nearly grown, and one husband who live in Corvallis, Oregon.

She will share writing techniques and her historical research process during UD’s 2007 Read History Institute.

Living in the South all her life, Mary Lyons began sharing stories about southerners, women, and African-Americans in 1980 after working years as a reading specialist and school librarian at all levels. Her biographies give voice to people who made extraordinary contributions to society, many at a time when their place in American society was less than ideal. Such titles as Stitching Stars: the Story Quilts of Harriet Powers, Master of Mahogany: Tom Day, Free Black Cabinetmaker, Catching the Fire :Philip Simmons, Blacksmith, or Letters from a Slave Boy: the Story of Joseph Jacobs (her newest) all plunged her into life as a history detective.

Lyons has garnered many awards for her writing (see web site) and currently co-teaches “The Writing Side of Children’s Literature” at the University of Virginia. She and her husband reside in Charlottesville where, when not researching and writing, she also plays banjo and penny whistle for the Chicken Heads!

She will share her writing and research process as well as some of the stories behind her works in the 2007 Read History Institute.