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Virginia Hamilton was born on March 12th, 1936, on a farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio. As a writer, she achieved critical success from the start with the publication of her first book, Zeely. Her great storytelling voice did not die with her in January of 2002, and I thought it best you hear from her …
“I see my books and the language I use in them as empowering me to give utterance to the dreams, the wishes, of African Americans. I see the imaginative use of language and ideas as a way to illuminate the human condition. All of my work, as a novelist, a biographer, creator and compiler of stories, has been to portray the essence of a people who are a parallel-culture society in America. I’ve attempted to mark the history and traditions of African Americans, a parallel culture people, through my writing, while bringing readers strong stories and memorable characters living nearly the best they know how. I want readers, both adults and children, to care about who the characters are. I want readers to feel, to understand, and to empathize. I want the books to make a world in which the characters are real.”