* Virginia Hamilton, storyteller, lecturer, and biographer,was born and raised in Yellow Springs, OH, which is said to be astation on the Underground Railroad. Her grandfather settled in thevillage after escaping slavery in Virginia.
* She was educated at Antioch College and Ohio State Universityand did further study in literature and the novel at the New Schoolfor Social Research.
* Virginia was the first African American woman to win theNewbery Award,for M.C. Higgins the Great. Since then, she has wonthree Newbery Honors and three Coretta Scott King Awards.
* In 1992, Virginia was awarded the Hans Christian AndersenMedal, which is presented every two years by the InternationalBoard on Books for Young People, in recognition of her entire bodyof work.
* Virginia writes first for the pleasure of using words andlanguage to evoke characters and their world, and in historicalaccounts such as Anthony Burns, the lives of real people. Secondly,Hamilton writes to entertain, to inspire in people the desire toread on and on good books made especially for them.