Mary Downing Hahn

Mary Downing Hahn
Born	December 9, 1937 (1937-12-09) (age 73) College Park, Maryland
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Period	1979 - present
Genres	Children's and Young Adult Literature

Mary Downing Hahn (born December 9, 1937, in Washington D.C.)^[1] is an award-winning^[2] American author of young adult novels. Her first published book, The Sara Summer, was released in 1979, when she was forty-one years old.^[2] Since then she has written over twenty novels. Many of those novels take place in Maryland, a state in which she grew up and in which she still lives.^[1][3]

Early life

Mary Downing Hahn grew up in College Park, Maryland. As a young girl she told stories through drawing pictures. When she was in elementary she loved reading and drawing, but hated writing, however, she liked to tell stories. By junior high, she wanted to create more intricate stories, and that is when she started writing, along with illustrating and she wrote her first story called, Small Town Life, but never finished it; She continued writing in high school, inside a journal. In college, Mary Downing Hahn created poetry with the hopes of being published in The New Yorker. Unfortunately, she lacked the confidence to read and write.^[2]

Professional life

She was a children's librarian^[3] before she decided to write and release her first book, The Sara Summer. After writing The Sara Summer, she started averaging one book a year.^[2] To date, she has released many renowned novels for children, including winning the Scott O'Dell award for the book Stepping on the Cracks.^[3] She is a three time winner of the William Allen White Children's Book Award. In 2010, she won the Edgar Award for her book, Closed for the Season.

Selected bibliography (alphabetical)

• All the Lovely Bad Ones (2008)
• Anna All Year Round (1999)
• Anna on the Farm (2001)
• Appointment with a Stranger
• As Ever, Gordy (1998)
• Closed for the Season (2009)
• Daphne's Book (1983)
• The Dead Man in Indian Creek (1990)
• December Stillness (1988)
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous (2007)
• The Doll in the Garden (1989)
• Following My Mom In The Attic Where She Killed Me (1996)
• Following the Mystery Man That Killed Me In A Dark Alley (1988)
• The Gentleman Outlaw and Me, Eli: A Story of the Old West (1996)
• The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall (2010)
• Hear the Wind Blow (2003)
• Janey and the Famous Author (2005)
• The Jellyfish Season (1985)
• The Old Willis Place (2004)
• Promises to the Dead (2000)
• The Sara Summer (1979)
• The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster (1991)
• Stepping on the Cracks (1991)
• Tallahassee Higgins (1987)
• Time For Andrew (1994)
• The Time of the Witch (1982)
• Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story (1986)
• The Wind Blows Backward (1993)
• Witch Catcher (2006)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "BookRag's Mary Downing Hahn Biography". bookrags.com. http://www.bookrags.com/biography/mary-downing-hahn-aya/. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Children's Book Guild of Washington DC's Member Page for Mary Downing Hahn". childrensbookguild.org. http://www.childrensbookguild.org/hahn.html. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Mary Downing Hahn". Scholastic.com. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=167426. Retrieved March 27, 2009. 

Persondata
Name	Hahn, Mary Downing
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 9, 1937
Place of birth	Washington D.C.,
Date of death
Place of death