Beth Kephart

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Beth Kephart is an American author of non-fiction, poetry and young adult fiction for adults and teens. Kephart has written and published over ten books and has received several grants and awards for her writing. She was a National Book Award Finalist[1] for her book "A Slant of the Sun: One Child’s Courage." She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and son. She is a writing partner in the marketing communications firm, Fusion Communications, and occasionally teaches and lectures at the University of Pennsylvania.[2]

Kephart was first published in Iowa Woman magazine and has said she was writing poems from the time she was quite young, and that she very influenced by music, the sound of words.

I loved to sing. I loved to perform, with my brother and sister, to the sound tracks of The Music Man or My Fair Lady or Windjammer. I always had rhymes sliding around in my head. So that even as I got older, I would return to Robert Louis Stevenson and Hans Christian Andersen to see how they created what they created. I would read F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and Sinclair Lewis, also, to learn about how words fit together. And then, of course, there was Black Beauty." [emphasis added].[3]
-Beth Kephart

Kephart is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and was a participant at the Bread Loaf Writing Conference, Middlebury, Vermont, with Jayne Anne Phillips; 1996 Prague Writing Conference, Czech Republic with William Gass and Jayne Anne Phillips; and 1995 Spoleto Writing Conference, Spoleto, Italy with Rosellen Brown and Reginald Gibbons, 1994.

Kephart is a prolific writer and reviewer and has penned reviews and essays for various publications, including:

Undercover, her first book for young adults, was named a 2007 best book of the year by Amazon.com, Kirkus, and School Library Journal.

Honors and awards

  • Speakeasy Poetry Prize (2005)
  • Pew Fellowships in the Arts (2005)
  • BookSense Pick (2005)
  • National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2000)
  • Leeway Grant for Creative Nonfiction (1998)
  • Salon Best Book of the Year (1998)
  • National Book Award, Nonfiction Finalist (1998)
  • Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Top Fiction Grant (1997)
  • Bread Loaf Merit Scholar for Fiction (1996)

Bibliography

  • Dangerous Neighbors, Laura Geringer Books: HarperTeen, 2010
  • Anderson, M. T., K. L. Going, Beth Kephart, and Chris Lynch, No Such Thing as the Real World, HarperTeen, 2010
  • The Heart is Not a Size, Laura Geringer Books: HarperTeen, 2009
  • House of Dance, Laura Geringer Books: HarperTeen, 2008
  • Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business, Berrett-Kohler, 2008
  • Undercover, Laura Geringer Books: HarperTeen, 2007
  • Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, Temple University Press, 2007
  • Ghosts in the Garden: Endings, Beginnings, and the Unearthing of Self, New World Library, 2005
  • Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood, Al Roker and Friends, Hyperion, 2005
  • Because I Said So, HarperCollins, 2005
  • Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World, W.W. Norton, 2004
  • Best American Sports Writing, Houghton Mifflin, 2003
  • New York Times Writers on Writing, Volume II, Times Books, 2003
  • The Kindness of Strangers, Lonely Planet, 2003
  • Still Love in Strange Places: A Memoir, W.W. Norton, 2002
  • Best American Sports Writing, Houghton Mifflin, 2001
  • Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance, 2000
  • Into the Tangle of Friendship: A Memoir of the Things that Matter, Houghton Mifflin, 2000
  • Mothers Who Think, Villard, 1999
  • The Leap Years, Beacon Press, 1999
  • A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage, W.W. Norton, 1998

References

  1. ↑ Beth Kephart bio at National Book
  2. ↑ Beth Kephart bio at Redroom
  3. ↑ Excerpt from Harper Collins Interview
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