'It happens in layers'

 

“Over the years, my students influenced me greatly, and I've learned many lessons from them. I have an immense amount of respect for them, and I think that respect for your audience is the foremost requirement for anyone who wants to write.” – Susan Campbell Bartoletti

 

Born in Harrisburg, PA on this date in 1958, Bartoletti was a Junior High School teacher for 20 years before turning to writing.  "I felt immense satisfaction in watching my students grow as writers and I wanted to practice what I preached,” she said.   Her first short story sold in 1989, her first children’s book, Silver at Night, in 1992. 

 

The winner of numerous awards including the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Newberry Honor Medal, she still teaches, but now her students are master’s degree candidates in various writing programs or students in writing workshops around the nation.  Among her 16 books are nonfiction bestsellers Growing Up in Coal Country and Kids on Strike and novels like Dancing With Dziadziu and No Man’s Land. 

 

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