Suzanne Newton is an award-winning writer of fiction for young adults who has earned top honors for each full-length work she has published. Her first five novels, in turn, won North Carolina's highest award for juvenile literature; I Will Call It Georgie's Blues' was an American Library Association, New York Times and New York Times Book Review "best book of the year"in 1983.

Born in 1936, Newton has lived her life in North Carolina, first in Bath and Washington, now in Raleigh. She is the mother of four grown children and is also a teacher, helping young writers develop their craft through North Carolina's Poetry-in-the-Schools project. Of that project, Newton says: "It has been an exciting experience to see children find freedom in word creations of their own."

Although she wrote numerous short stories, poems and articles for adults early in her career, Newton ultimately...