Karen Hesse

Karen Hesse grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and began writing early in elementary school in part because of the encouragement she received from teachers.  She writes that in fifth grade, 'Mrs. Datnoff commented on the level of creativity in my assignments, and I took her words to heart and embraced the notion of myself as a writer.  I fell in love with Dr. Seuss' use of language as soon as I could read. At the Enoch Pratt Free Library on the corner of W. Garrison Avenue and Park Heights, I discovered a children's librarian who fed me books the way a mother bird feeds a nestling. One day, when I was eleven, I wandered out of the children's section of the library and got my hands on John Hersey's Hiroshima. Here were people surviving under the most extreme adversity and behaving in a manner of extraordinary grace and dignity. I think you can hear the echo of Hiroshima in my work.'