Connie Ann Kirk - My Story

MY STORY

Here's the story of how I became a writer (it's kind of long because it took me a LONG time!):

Family:

I was born on Valentine's Day (yep!)--February 14, 1957, in Wellsville, New York. My parents named me Connie Ann. They liked the sound of those 2 names together and have always called me by those 2 names. (My name is not Constance, by the way!). Even though I go by just Connie with everyone else, I use Connie Ann on my books as a way of honoring my parents. I had an older brother, Thom, who was 11 years older! I lived in the same house in the same small town for my entire childhood--the house where my parents still live today!

Childhood and School:

When I was a child, I loved books and also the American space program that was flying its Gemini and Apollo missions at the time. When asked, I would say that I wanted to become either the first American woman astronaut or a writer when I grew up.

I always loved to read, and became known throughout school for my writing. Some kids are known around school for their skill at math, art, or sports--my thing was writing.

At home, I spent many hours playing in and around the creek near my house. I also enjoyed making up games and stories with friends from the neighborhood. Since I was so much younger than my brother (he graduated from high school when I was just in first grade!), I learned early how to entertain myself and how to be comfortable being alone. I read many books and liked to write my own stories and poems.

I went to kindergarten at Martin Street School, then grades 1-8 at Immaculate Conception Catholic School. I graduated from Wellsville Central High School in 1975. All through school, my teachers encouraged my interest in writing. I was involved in school newspapers, including the high school student newspaper, The Owl, as a reporter and then as the feature editor. I continued to write for student newspapers in college. I used to write a regular column called, "Along the Byway."

Soon enough, I decided that writing was what I most liked to do. I might have studied journalism and become a reporter back then, like Walter Cronkite, whom I admired, but I could not afford to go to college long enough to get a journalism or English degree. Instead, I made a plan and got a two-year degree in business, just to start.

College & First Jobs:

With my business degree, I started working in the offices of a large company. The company was Corning Glass Works (now, Corning Incorporated)--the place where Corelle® dinnerware, Pyrex® measuring cups, Steuben fine crystal, television tubes, light bulbs, and other glass products were invented and made.

Corning liked my work and paid for me to receive another two-year degree. This degree was in chemistry, because they needed chemical technicians for their research and development laboratories. They wanted to offer these jobs to women to encourage more women in the sciences. Corning made the windows for the Apollo spacecraft and the ceramic heat tiles for the space shuttle program. As much as I would have loved it, I did not get to work on those projects.

My projects as a technician included work on optical waveguides (the glass fiber that has replaced copper cable and made the Internet and many other electronic advances possible!). I also worked on decorating inks for dinnerware, and did a small amount of work on catalytic converters. These are ceramic devices that help keep cars, trucks, and buses from polluting our air. While I worked for the company as a laboratory technician to support myself (working for a time in science, after all), I continued to write and dream of becoming a writer. Interesting as it was, the world of the laboratory now seemed very far from the world I wanted to be in!

It wasn't until the 1980s when I was able to return to college to study literature and creative writing. About the same time, I married my husband, who is an engineer, and we started our family. We have 2 sons.

By 1988, I had a master's degree in English and started teaching English at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. There, I taught writing and literature courses for many years. While I taught at the college and raised my sons, I wrote and submitted short stories to small, literary journals and also to large magazines. I also taught college classes long distance by video hook-up and online over the Internet.

In 2003, I completed my Ph. D. in English at Binghamton University, which meant that I could be called "Dr. Kirk." I'm a doctor of English and writing--not a doctor of medicine! Because I am particularly proud that I finished my studies while also raising my children at the same time, my favorite title of all is "Dr. Mom."

Writing & Publishing:

In 2001, my first book was published--it was the children's non-fiction book, First Peoples: The Mohawks of North America. This was followed in early 2003 by J. K. Rowling: A Biography. That book has been translated into Estonian, Japanese, and Chinese. Following these books came: Emily Dickinson: A Biography (2004), Mark Twain: A Biography (2004), and Sylvia Plath: A Biography (2004). The biographies are written for young adults--high school students and college freshmen and sophomores--but general readers both younger and older than this age group also read them as a quick source for information.

In the fall of 2004, my first fiction picture book for younger children, Sky Dancers, illustrated by Christy Hale, was published by Lee & Low Books. The book tells the story of a young Mohawk boy, John Cloud, who visits his father while he is working high steel building the Empire State Building in New York City. It is historical fiction set in the 1930s. At that time, former New York State Governor George E. Pataki said that Sky Dancers is "...a wonderful book...[that] honor[s] those that were integral to the rise of one of the greatest cities in the world." He even added the book to his collection at the Executive Mansion (the governor's house) in Albany!

I have other books published now, too, but I'll let you look around my website to find out more about those!

Conclusion:

I live in the Finger Lakes region of New York State and love what I do. I feel very fortunate. When asked about becoming a fulltime writer after so many years, I always say, "My experience is another example that proves that achieving a dream is possible--if you work hard, and if you never, ever give up!"