LoginAugust 2022 Notable Author: Jerdine Nolen
“Be very generous with reading and with books.” – Jerdine Nolen
Jerdine Nolen author of Eliza’s Freedom Road, an ALA/YALSA Best Fiction Nominee for Young Adults, was born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi,
raised in Chicago, Illinois, and now lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. She was part of a large family (5 sisters, 2 brothers) and can’t ever remember being bored. She had a wild imagination and was always making up games, or playing with her dolls or toy lamb, or collecting words. She cannot remember a time in her life when she was not writing. Her mother said, “You are a lot like John Henry, only born with a pencil in your hand.”
Nolen’s education included a B.A. in special education from Northeastern Illinois University and an M.Ed. in interdisciplinary arts education from
Loyola University in Chicago. She was an educator for a number of years as a classroom teacher, curriculum writer, staff developer, family involvement specialist, and administrator. She now loves visiting and read to children in school.
Jerdine Nolen has written several award wining picture books and young adult novels. All center on history and focus on family and love. Thunder Rose is a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life is a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, and Calico Girl is a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year.
Nolen fell in love with Maryland “a beautiful state that is also rich in the history of our country” and now lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. For more information visit www.jerdinenolen.com.
Genre: Young Adult - Historical
Category of fiction for readers from ages 12-18. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate with the age and experience of the protagonist.
Sample Reading List: Big Jabe, Thunder Rose, Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life, Eliza’s Freedom Road, Raising Dragons, Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm, Calico Girl, Irene’s Wish.
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing young adult historical fiction like Jerdine Nolen. With just 100 words, create a character (age 12-18), place them in a historical context, and show family love and support helping in their situation. Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses to be published with next month’s article as well as posted on the MWA website.
Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt
The MWA is a 33-year-old state-wide association (501c3) dedicated to encouraging and mentoring Maryland writers, poets, playwrights, and authors. Go to: www.MarylandWriters.org for more info.
Reader Responses: Last month we asked readers to have fun writing detective fiction like George Pelecanos. With just 100 words, create a detective character (professional, amateur, or retired) who investigates a crime centered in Washington, DC. Feel free to drop names and communities.These are their responses:
Lawrence McGuire
Oct. 26, 2022THE LONG ROLL - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED a banner read and the boy knew his trudge from Charles County to Washington was over. Under maple branches that looked like switches, men crowded a recruiting post in answer to President Lincoln's call. A captain used a hogshead, warm smell of dried tobacco, as a desk. "Boy, since you're from Southern Maryland, why not drum for Traitor Davis?" The boy carried an answer his parents had taught him. "No human being should own another human being!" Silence struck the crowd. All stared at the boy. None spoke. The captain nodded as though seeing the truth of it.
Jon Ketzner
Oct. 26, 2022Medals of Dishonor - Mountain Orchid sat with grandfather, Black Coyote. The white invader warriors approached. “Give us your rifle old man…we’re disarming you Wounded Knee savages.” Black Coyote stared at the blue soldiers blankly…he was deaf. He clutched his rifle. Bloody tumult erupted. Black Coyote shrouded Mountain Orchid’s teen frame with his body. He grunted as soldier bullets pierced him but not her. Three hundred Lakota, including Black Coyote, died in the Wounded Knee massacre. Mountain Orchid wondered until her death in great old age if her grandfathered had been killed by one of the twenty “heroes” who received Medals of Honor for their actions that day.
Doris Brady
Oct. 26, 2022Dealey Plaza - Sixteen-year-old Jonathan couldn’t remember the last time he was this excited. The President was coming to his city and he had his teacher’s permission to be part of the throng expected to greet the youthful leader of our country. He felt so lucky! But his joy was short lived and turned to horror at 12:30 that afternoon. He heard the shots and saw the great man slump over in the open-top convertible. “Mom? Mom! Come get me,” Jonathan cried into the payphone. “I saw it all. Mom, please come!” “Jonathan! Take a deep breath. You’re in shock. Stay where you are. I’m coming.”
Steve Baker
Oct. 26, 2022Southern Discomfort - Henrietta Belle whistled Dixie, used words like "fiddlesticks" and had no use for no-count scalawags. Today, April 12, 1861, was Henrietta's debut night at the Charleston Cotillion Hall overlooking Ft. Sumter. Henrietta was whipping up a mess of vittles for the hootenanny just as Big Daddy had taught her...but things soon went haywire [cue ominous music]. Henrietta's pecan pie went to burnin', her fried okra spilt all over tarnation, and flames from her griddle cakes commenced the curtains a-burnin'. There was fixin' to be a mighty conflagration. Henrietta reckoned she needed some help from down yonder so she stuck her head out the door and yelled: "FIRE!" The rest, I do declare, is history.