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Patricia McKissack in 2012

Patricia L'Ann Carwell "Pat" McKissack (August 9, 1944 – April 7, 2017) was an American children's writer.^[1] She was the author of over 100 books, including The Royal Diaries: A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She has also written a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Patricia lived in St. Louis. Her husband, Fredrick McKissack, with whom she co-won the Regina Medal in 1998, died in April 2013 at the age of 73; before marrying her and joining her in writing full-time, he had an accomplished career as a U.S. Marine, a civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and had owned a contracting business in the St. Louis area.^[2]

Patricia McKissack was also a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, a national not-for-profit that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.^[3]

She was known also as L'Ann Carwell, Pat McKissack and Patricia C. McKissack.

Biography

Patricia L'Ann Carwell was born to civil servant parents Robert and Erma Carwell on August 9, 1944, in Smyrna, Tennessee. She was inspired to be a writer by her mother who always read her poetry and also by her grandparents who told her many stories. Her father's stories usually included the names of her and siblings Nolan and Sarah. The characters in these stories were always smart and brave, characteristics present in Patricia's later works. Patricia and her siblings grew up in the south and they all remember the poetry her mother told by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

When writing Goin' Someplace Special (2000), Patricia remembered her favorite place to go as a child, which was the Nashville Public Library, where she always felt welcome and where she learned her love for reading. Many of the childhood stories she heard from her mother and grandparents later became stories she wrote as an author of books for children and young adults.

While attending Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University now known as the Tennessee State University, Patricia met up with a childhood friend, Fredrick McKissack, who would later become her husband. She graduated with an English degree in 1964 while Fredrick obtained a civil engineering degree. They were married on December 12, 1965 and started their family right away. After traveling to Missouri, Patricia attended Webster University and graduated with a M.A. in child education. She then became a junior high-school English teacher but in 1971 realized that she wanted to be an author.

Fredrick and Patricia's first book together^{[citation needed]} was published in 1984, a biography of Paul Lawrence Dunbar entitled Paul Lawrence Dunbar: A Poet to Remember, which is her mother's favorite poet. Patricia then went on to write many more biographies.^[4]
In 1975, Patricia McKissack began her professional writing career. She wrote mostly non-fiction and focused on issues such as racism and African American history. She spent considerable time writing 20 non-fiction books before she wrote her first picture book. Flossie & the Fox was sent to Ann Schwartz, who was an editor at Dial Press.^[when?] Schwartz threw the manuscript aside, saying it was too long. Patricia did not want to shorten her manuscript at all but finally shortened it to six pages, when it was finally accepted.^{[citation needed]} (It was published in 1986.)

The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992) is McKissack's work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries.^[a] It is a book she wrote from childhood memories, describing the 30 minutes before dark on a summer night. That was the time Patricia and many other authors spent on their porches telling and writing stories. These stories were all fiction but some were spun from pieces of her reality. Patricia also uses family, friends and places of her memory in writing her stories.

In 1980, she became a full-time author. Her family was moved to St. Louis, where she started a writing service. Her late husband, Fredrick McKissack also then became interested in writing and researching for non-fiction books. One of their goals as a couple was to introduce children to African-American history and the historical figures that went along with it. Fredrick was the researcher of the pair, while Patricia mostly wrote up the research. They worked together to make manuscripts that suited them both, and together they aimed to make history come alive in their stories for children. She and Fredrick believed strongly in the contributions of African Americans, and it showed in many of their stories they created together.^[5]

Until his death, Patricia and Fredrick were partners in All-Writing Services in St. Louis. They shared an office that includes a library and two offices, one for each of them. They would go to work daily and stay until all of their tasks were completed for that day. They had worked collaboratively on many works, but one of the most famous was A Long Hard Journey: The Story of Pullman Porter, which won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1990. They also were the authors of Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman, which also won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1993. Patricia is also a recipient of the third annual (2001) Virginia Hamilton Literary Award,^[6] a Newbery Honor Book citation (Newbery Medal runner-up), the National Council of Teachers of English's Orbis Pictus Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and a NAACP Image Award.^[7] After Fredrick's death the McKissack's jointly received the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.^[8]

Their two sons, twins Robert Lewis and John Patrick, are now grown, and were the inspiration for her book Who Is Who? (1983). The oldest of the children, Fredrick McKissack, Jr., is also a writer and a journalist who collaborated with his mother to create the award-winning book for older readers, Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues (1994). For many years the McKissacks lived in a renovated inner-city home. They eventually moved to their home in Chesterfield, Missouri, and enjoyed visits from their grandson. They also enjoyed growing roses and gardening.

Patricia and her husband Fredrick worked and published over 100 books together, 20 years in the making. At the time of his death, they were working together on at least one work, which she has stated she will complete on her own. Fredrick had said that they worked very well together, and that their partnership was as strong as ever. He had said that they even "sigh at the same time". Patricia McKissack still longs to teach through her books and states, "she is not a black writer but rather a writer who happens to be black—I write for children of all races."^[9] She died on April 7, 2017 at the age of 72.^[10]

Awards

• 1990 Coretta Scott King Award, winner, A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter (Fredrick & Patricia)


• 1993 Carter G. Woodson Book Award, winner, Madam C.J. Walker (Fredrick & Patricia)


• 1993 Coretta Scott King Award, winner, Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
  


• 1995 Coretta Scott King Award, winner, Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (Fredrick & Patricia)


• 2001 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award]]^[6]


• 2012 PEN/Steven Kroll Award, winner, Never Forgotten
  


• 2014 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement (Fredrick & Patricia)^[8]

Beside the three Coretta Scott King Award winners listed here, six other books by McKissack were runners-up or Coretta Scott King Honor Books (all in the writers category). All nine of those books are marked in the list of works immediately below (‡).^[11]

Other runners-up:

• 1993 Horn Book Award, runner-up, Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (Fredrick & Patricia)


• 1993 Newbery Medal runner-up, The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
  


• 1995 Orbis Pictus Award, honor book, Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (Fredrick & Patricia)

Selected books

• 
  The Good Shepherd Prayer: Understanding the 23rd Psalm, as by L'Ann Carwell, illustrated by Pam Erickson (Concordia Publishing House, 1979), unpaged, LCCN 79-110353
  


• 
  God Gives New Life, as Carwell, illus. Deborah Stockton Miller (Concordia, 1981), unpaged, LCCN 81-4696
  


• 
  Who Is Who?, illus. Elizabeth M. Allen (Chicago: Children's Press, 1983), .mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
  OCLC 9464620, LCCN 83-7361
  


• 
  Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Poet to Remember (1984)


• 
  Aztec Indians (1985)


• 
  Flossie & the Fox (1986)


• 
  The Civil Rights Movement in America from 1865 to the Present, with Fredrick McKissack (1987)


• 
  Messy Bessey, with Fredrick McKissack (1987), first in a series^[a]


• 
  Bugs!, with Fredrick McKissack (1988)


• 
  Mirandy and Brother Wind (1988)


• 
  A Piece of the Wind and Other Stories to Tell (1990)


• 
  A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter, with Fredrick McKissack (1990) ‡


• 
  Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History (1991)


• 
  Frederick Douglass: Leader against Slavery, with Fredrick McKissack (1991)


• 
  Ralph J. Bunche: Peacemaker (1991)


• 
  A Million Fish ... more or less (1992)


• 
  Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992) ‡


• 
  The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992) ‡


• 
  Langston Hughes: Great American Poet (1992)


• 
  Satchel Paige: The Best Arm in Baseball (1992)


• 
  Sojourner Truth: A Voice for Freedom (1992)


• 
  Zora Neale Hurston: Writer and Storyteller (1992)


• 
  The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa, with Fredrick McKissack (1993)


• 
  Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues, with Fredrick McKissack, Jr. (1994) ‡


• 
  Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters, with Fredrick McKissack (1994) ‡


• 
  Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts, with Fredrick McKissack (1996) ‡


• 
  Red-Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (1996)


• 
  A Picture of Freedom: the Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1858 (Scholastic, 1997), Dear America series
  


• 
  Ma Dear's Aprons (1997)


• 
  Run Away Home (1997)


• 
  Let My People Go: Bible Stories Told By A Freeman Of Color, with Fredrick McKissack (1998)


• 
  Young, Black, and Determined, with Fredrick McKissack (1998)


• 
  Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers, with Fredrick McKissack (1999) ‡


• 
  Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba (Scholastic, 2000), Royal Diaries series, fiction,
  OCLC 43757459
  


• 
  Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North (Scholastic Dear America, 2000)


• 
  Goin' Someplace Special (2000)


• 
  The Honest-to-Goodness Truth (2000)


• 
  Days Of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States, with Fredrick McKissack (2002) ‡


• 
  Tippy Lemmey (2003)


• 
  Hard Labor: The First African Americans, 1619, with Fredrick McKissack, Jr. (2004)


• 
  Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl (Scholastic Dear America, 2004)


• 
  Precious and the Boo Hag (2004)


• 
  To Establish Justice: Citizenship and Constitution (2004)


• 
  Abby Takes a Stand (2005)


• 
  Where Crocodiles have Wings (2005)


• 
  Scraps of Time: 1879, Away West (2006)


• 
  Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters (2006)


• 
  A Friendship for Today (2007)


• 
  The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll (2007)


• 
  A Song for Harlem (2007)


• 
  Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt (2008)


• 
  The Clone Codes series, by John Patrick McKissack, Fredrick McKissack, and Patricia C. McKissack^[12]
  • 
    The Clone Codes (2010), set in 2170, LCCN 2009-24076
    
  
  
  • 
    Cyborg (2011) LCCN 2010-16075
    
  
  
  • 
    The Visitor (2012)
  
  


• 
  Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love, written with Fredrick McKissack, Jr., illus. Randy DuBurke (2011) – fictionalized, graphic novel,
  OCLC 138340270
  


• 
  Never Forgotten, illus. Leo and Diane Dillon (2011), unpaged,
  OCLC 651153676 ‡


• 
  Ol' Clip-Clop: A Ghost Story (2013)^[12]


• Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out!: Games, Songs & Stories From An African American Childhood (2017)

See also

Notes

References

External links

• 
  Patricia C. McKissack at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  


• 
  Pat McKissack at Library of Congress Authorities, with 177 catalog records


• 
  L'Ann Carwell (pseudonym) at LC Authorities, with 2 records


• 
  Fredrick McKissack (husband) at LC Authorities, with 118 records, and Fredrick, Sr. at WorldCat


• 
  Fredrick McKissack, Jr. (son) at LC Authorities, with 20 records, and Fredrick, Jr. at WorldCat


• 
  John Patrick McKissack (son) at LC Authorities, with 2 records, and John Patrick at WorldCat