George Ella Lyon

George Ella Lyon (born April 25, 1949) is an American author from Kentucky, who has published in many genres, including picture books, poetry, juvenile novels, and articles.

Biography

George Ella Lyon was born in Harlan, a coal mining town in southeastern Kentucky. Her books frequently take place in Appalachia. She married Stephen c. Lyon, a musician, in 1972, and had two children with him. She earned a B.A. at Centre College in Kentucky in 1971, her M.A. at the University of Arkansas in 1972, and her Ph.D. at Indiana University--Bloomington in 1978.

She first published in 1983, a poetry collection called Mountain.  Aside from publishing, she also taught writing at a number of colleges, including the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Transylvania University, and Radford University. She has also acted as an executive committee member for the Women Writers Conference. She currently teaches writing through workshops, conferences, and author visits.

Works
In an article in The Reading Teacher, Sylvia Pantaleo notes that Lyon's A Day at Damp Camp bears characteristics of Dresang's Radical Change theory by having a nonlinear story, which artist Peter Catalanotto loops back to the beginning through the illustrations and images, and text within boxes that resembles "hypertext Web links".

Bibliography

Children/Young Adult
Father Time and the Day Boxes, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, 1985.
A Regular Rolling Noah, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, 1986.
One Lucky Girl, illustrated by Irene Trivas, 2000.
Mother to Tigers, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 2002.
Gina.Jamie.Father.Bear., 2002.
Sonny's House of Spies, 2004.
Holding on to Zoe, 2012.

Picture Books
A B Cedar: An Alphabet of Trees, illustrated by Tom Parker, 1989.
Together, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry, 1989.
Come a Tide, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, 1990.
Basket, illustrated by Mary Szilagyi, 1990.
Cecil's Story, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1991.
The Outside Inn, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry, 1991.
Who Came Down that Road?, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1992.
Dreamplace, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1993.
Five Live Bongos, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, 1994.
Mama Is a Miner, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1994.
Ada's Pal, illustrated by Marguerite Casparian, 1996.
A Wordful Child, photographs by Ann W. Olson, 1996.
A Day at Damp Camp, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1996.
A Sign, illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet, 1998.
A Traveling Cat, illustrated by Paul Brett Johnson, 1998.
Book, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1999.
Weaving the Rainbow, illustrated by Stephanie Anderson, 2004.
When You Get Little and I Get Big, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 2006.
No Dessert Forever!, 2006.
Trucks Roll!, 2007
You and Me and Home Sweet Home, 2009.
The Pirate of Kindergarten, 2010.
All the Water in the World, illustrated by Katherine Tillotson, 2011.
Planes Fly!, 2013

Novels
Borrowed Children, 1988.
Red Rover, 1989 (published as The Stranger I Left behind Me, 1997)
Here and Then, 1994.
With a Hammer for My Heart, 1996.

Poetry
Mountain, 1983.
Growing Light, 1987.
Catalpa, 1993.
Counting on the Woods, photographs by Ann W. Olson, 1998.
She Let Herself Go, 2012.
Many-Storied House, 2013.

Miscellaneous Works
Braids (two-act play), first produced in Lexington, KY, at Transylvania University, 1985.
Choices: Stories for Adult New Readers, 1989.
(Editor, with Jim Wayne Miller and Gurney Norman) A Gathering at the Forks: Fifteen Years of the Hindman Settlement School Appalachian Writers Workshop, 1993.
Where I'm From: Where Poems Come From, photographs by Robert Hoskins, 1999.
(Editor) E Kentucky Christmas, 2003.

Awards
Kentucky poet laureate, 2015–17
Lamont Hall Award, Andrew Mountain Press, 1983, for Mountain
Golden Kite Award, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, 1989, for Borrowed Children
Kentucky Bluegrass Award, for Basket
Andrew Mountain Press Award, for Mountain
Book of the Year Award, Appalachian Writers Association, for Catalpa
Best Books of the Year citation, Publishers Weekly, for Who Came Down that Road?
Jesse Stuart Media Award, Kentucky School Media Association, for body of work.

References
Unless otherwise noted, all information is taken from: Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

Notes

External links
 George Ella Lyon's Official Site

Category:1949 births
Category:University of Arkansas alumni
Category:Living people
Category:People from Harlan, Kentucky
Category:Novelists from Kentucky
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:American women novelists
Category:Kentucky culture
Category:Indiana University alumni
Category:University of Kentucky faculty
Category:Radford University faculty
Category:Centre College alumni
Category:Centre College faculty
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:Novelists from Virginia