Gloria Skurzynski

Gloria Joan Skurzynski (born July 6, 1930) is an American writer of books for young people, including both fiction and non-fiction.

She was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania and educated at Carlow University. She is the author of more than sixty books for young readers. Skurzynski has used her steel town background and interests in history, technology, folk tales, and science to entertain young readers since she began writing professionally in 1979.[1] Living during the Great Depression, her father, Aylmer Kearney Flister, provided the family with steady income by working at a steel mill while her mother, Serena (Decker) Flister, was employed as a telegraph operator.[2] In 1948, Gloria attended Carlow University, then called Mount Mercy College. Finding the educational atmosphere not to her liking, she left school and worked as a statistical clerk at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1950 to 1952.[3]

Personal life

Gloria married her husband, Edward Joseph Skurzynski, an aerospace engineer, in 1951.[4] The couple would go on to have five children: Serena, Rose, Janine, Joan, and Alane.[5] Edward Skurzynski and Gloria eventually make a move to Salt Lake City, Utah. Skurzynski and her husband Edward currently reside in Boise, Idaho.

Works

Skurzynski began a correspondence with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Phyllis McGinley in 1965. As their friendship grew, McGinley encouraged Skurzynski to try her hand at writing professionally and the Gloria Skurzynski's first work was published in Teen Magazine after 58 rejections from various other publications.[6] As her children began to grow older, Skurzynski turned her focus on writing children's novels and her first one, What Happened in Hamelin?, was published in 1979. Her books, The Tempering (1983) and Good-bye, Billy Radish (1992), draw on her steel town past and the historical significance of the steel industry in Western Pennsylvania.

Skurzynski's interests do not just revolve around history, but her interests also include the landscape of the American West as seen in her Mountain West Adventure Series; and into the workings of modern technology as read in her series, Your High Tech World. Gloria Skurzynski's non-fiction titles include: Bionic Parts for People: The Real Story of Artificial Organs and Replacement Parts (1978) and Are We Alone?: Scientists Search for Life in Space (2004). In recent years, the author has collaborated with her daughter, author Alane Ferguson, on a series of novels titled Mysteries in Our National Parks for the National Geographic Society. Her writing has earned her numerous awards including: two Golden Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, a Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, and a Golden Kite Award for fiction.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of Pittsburgh University Library System. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "Gloria Skurzynski Papers". University of PIttsburgh ULS. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

Sources

Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2007. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000091922.

External links

Archival Materials


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