George Ella Lyon (born April 25, 1949, in Harlan, Kentucky/kentucky)) is an American author from Kentucky, who has published in many genres, including picture books, poetry, juvenile novels, and articles.

Biography

George Ella Lyon was born April 25, 1949, in Harlan, Kentucky, a coal mining town in southeastern Kentucky, to Robert Vernon Jr. and Gladys (née Fowler) Hoskins. She married Stephen C. Lyon, a musician, on June 3, 1972, and has since had two children with him. Lyon received a Bachelor of Arts from Centre College in Kentucky in 1971, a Master of Arts from the University of Arkansas in 1972, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Indiana University--Bloomington in 1978. In 1983, Lyon published her first writing, a poetry collection called Mountain. Aside from publishing, she also taught writing at a number of colleges, including the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Transylvania University, and Radford University. She has also acted as an executive committee member for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. She currently teaches writing through workshops, conferences, and author visits. Lyon served as Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2015–16.

Works

In an article in The Reading Teacher, Sylvia Pantaleo notes that Lyon's A Day at Damp Camp bears characteristics of Dresang's Radical Change theory by having a nonlinear story, which artist Peter Catalanotto loops back to the beginning through the illustrations, images, and text within boxes that resemble "hypertext Web links". Lyon's books frequently take place in Appalachia.

Forthcoming works

Picture books

Fiction: children/young adult

Fiction: adults

Poetry

Miscellaneous works

Awards

Sources