Award winning authors, 2011 Lesson 1 Mildred Taylor

              Mildred Taylor was born in Jackson,
Mississippi, in 1943 but moved to Toledo,
Ohio, shortly after. Although Taylor did not live
in the South, she always felt a deep connection
to the region through the stories her father
and extended family told on yearly trips to
Mississippi. She attended the University
of Toledo, then joined the Peace Corps and
spent two years teaching English and History
in Ethiopia, Africa. After returning to the
U.S., she earned a Master of Arts degree in
Journalism from the University of Colorado.
While there, she helped the school start a
Black Studies program.
Many of Taylor’s characters are loosely based
on her family and stories she was told about
her family history. Her
first book, Song of the
Trees, was published in 1973 and by 1975 was awarded
Outstanding Book of the Year by the New York Times as well
as the Council on Interracial Books Award, African American
category. Since then, she has written and published more
than ten award-winning books. She wrote Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry in 1976 and received numerous awards for
it, some of which include the Newberry Medal in 1977, the
New York Times Book Review Best Children’s Book 1970-
1980, and distinction on The Horn Book Fanfare Honor List.
In 2003, Mildred D. Taylor was named the inaugural winner of the NSK Neustadt
Prize for Children’s Literature from the University of Oklahoma and World
Literature Today.
Reflection:
Research other authors who center their stories on the South and
Southern traditions. In what way are these stories similar? In what ways
are they different? Are there similarities in these author’s backgrounds
or life experiences? Which of their stories are most
well-known, and what are they about?
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