Connie Porter

Connie Rose Porter (born in 1959) is an African-American author best known for her books for children and young adults. She was the third youngest of nine children of a family living in a housing project. She went on to earn degrees from SUNY Albany and Louisiana State University. She has since taught English and creative writing at Milton Academy, Emerson College, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She was a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and was a regional winner in Granta's Best Young American Novelist contest.

Porter's debut novel All-Bright Court (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991) portrayed life in a northern urban "slum" community during the late 20th century. She then began work on a series of children's books about a pre-teenage girl named Addy Walker, who escaped from slavery in North Carolina during the American Civil War and learned the life of freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pleasant Company Publications (now owned by Mattel and operating as American Girl) published eleven of her "Addy" books between 1993 and 2003 as part of its American Girls Collection Series and in conjunction with the Addy Walker doll, which was the first non-white doll of its American Girl Collection. Porter returned briefly to a more mature and modern subject matter in 1999 to write the novel Imani All Mine (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) about a 14-year-old mother struggling in a present-day inner-city world of poverty and danger.

Published books

• All-Bright Court, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. ISBN 0-395-53271-X (1992 paperback reprint, New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-097498-2; 2000 prebound reprint, Sagebrush. ISBN 0-613-27703-1)
• Meet Addy: An American girl (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Luann Roberts), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-076-0 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-075-2)
• Addy Learns a Lesson: A school story (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-078-7 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-077-9)
• Addy's Surprise: A Christmas story (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-080-9 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-079-5)
• Happy Birthday, Addy!: A springtime story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-082-5 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-081-7)
• Addy Saves the Day: A summer story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-084-1 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-083-3)
• Changes for Addy: A winter story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-086-8 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-085-X)
• Imani All Mine, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. ISBN 0-618-05678-5 (2000 paperback reprint ISBN 0-395-83808-8)
• High Hopes for Addy (illustrations by John Thompson and Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1999. ISBN 1-56247-765-X
• Addy's Little Brother (illustrations by Gabriela Dellosso and Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2000. ISBN 1-58485-033-7
• Addy's Wedding Quilt (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2001. ISBN 1-58485-274-7
• Addy Studies Freedom (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Renée Graef, Philip Hood, and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-58485-480-4
• Addy's Summer Place (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Renée Graef), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2003. ISBN 1-58485-697-1 Mrs. Porter currently has a new book,Not Afraid.

References

• "Connie Porter" author biography on the cover of All-Bright Court, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. ISBN 0-395-53271-X.
• "Connie Rose Porter: Author/Illustrator Bio", Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference Division, 2006 (retrieved July 22, 2006).
• "Connie Rose Porter: Interview", Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference Division, 2006 (retrieved July 22, 2006).

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Name	Porter, Connie
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Date of birth	1959
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