Autobiographical sketch written for the 1996 Biography from Seventh Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators:

I've always been a late bloomer--but I always eventually bloom. Here I am making a new career late in life and having a wonderful time.

I was born in a suburb of Chicago in October, 1941, and moved with my family to Los Angeles in 1952. In my own mind, I was always a writer, even though I didn't write much. The first thing I remember writing was a plea for brotherhood, understanding, and multiculturalism--I was obviously ahead of my time--called "Jingle Bagels," a play about Santa Claus going down the wrong chimney and landing in a Jewish house during Hanukah. When I matured to thirteen or so, I started an epic poem cycle based on the life of Elvis. Some parts remain; some, alas, are lost to the world.

Coming, as I did, from an ethnic working-class Chicago family, I didn't know writing was a job, something that real people did with their lives. Secretary, maybe, or salesman, or school crossing guard, like my Grandpa.

A fortuitous scholarship got me to Stanford University, where I excelled at writing depressing poems and irreverent parodies of school songs, but college creative writing class sent me screaming into the night looking for something else to do.

I graduated in 1963 with a degree in English and Greek. I wanted to dig for treasures on the Acropolis by moonlight. Instead I found myself at the telephone company in Beverly Hills. I quit. I found other jobs. Quit them all.

Several jobs into the 1960s, I was working at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, where I met Philip, then a rabbinical student. We married and moved to Oregon, where Philip taught and I wove and made blackberry jam and had a daughter, Leah.

Back in California, Philip and I earned Master's degrees in counseling and human behavior, respectively. Philip then got his doctorate in psychology and has been a psychotherapist and teacher for nearly twenty years.

I earned a second Master's, in Museum Studies, and for ten years have been at the graduate department of Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University. I have edited the Museum Studies Journal, taught classes in museology and material culture, and shepherded reluctant students through their Master's projects.

Leah graduated with a degree in biology from the Unversity of California, Santa Cruz. Her career plans include reading, sleeping, and working in a bookstore.

Catherine, Called Birdy is my first book. Over the years I've had lots of book ideas. I'd tell my husband and that would be that. This time when I said, "Listen, I have this great idea for a book," he refused to listen. He said, "Don't tell me. Write it down." So I did, and the rest is history. Now I use that story as a metaphor for living when I speak to school classes: It's not enough to have an idea. You have to make a commitment, take a stand, write it down.

Birdy grew from my interest in children and history. I wondered what the lot of children might have been in the Middle Ages when they had no power and little value. Especially girl children. Birdy's plight was that she couldn't do much about her situation. So what could she do? That's what the book is about.

Being from California, I am sometimes asked if I "channeled" the book, it being easier for some to imagine psychically communicating with a long-dead British teenager than to imagine research and writing, I suppose. But I did it the hard way. I made it up.

The made-up parts are based on extensive research, which I loved doing. I learned all about bee-keeping, shearing sheep, ointments and remedies, superstitions and fears, clothing, food, language, table manners, bathing habits, privies. It took three years to research and write. Information on battles, kings, and cathedrals was easy to find. Domestic history was harder to uncover, but I felt a responsibility to offer young people the most accurate picture possible of the times.

The Midwife's Apprentice began with the title and an image of a homeless girl sleeping on a dung heap, longing for a name, a full belly, and a place in the world. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple follows a girl dragged unhappily across the country to search for gold. I think Catherine, Alyce, and Lucy are all me. I know myself better now than before I began to write. Now you do, too.

Biographical Statement:

Karen Cushman earned her first M.A. degree from the United States International University in San Diego. Her second, in Museum Studies, was from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California. She is currently adjunct professor in the Museum Studies Department at the university. She and her husband live in the Rockridge area of Oakland, California, with their two cats and their dog.

Catherine, Called Birdy was named an Honor Book in the 1995 John Newbery Medal awards, given by the American Library Association. School Library Journal called it "superb historical fiction." It won the Carl Sandburg Award for Children's Literature from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library, and a 1994 Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators. It also was named a Best Book for Young Adults and a Notable Book of the Year by the ALA.

Works by subject:

Selected Works: Catherine, Called Birdy, 1994; The Midwife's Apprentice, 1995.

Works about subject:

Suggested Reading: Publishers Weekly July 4, 1994.

Additional citations:

Cushman, Philip. Karen Cushman; The Horn Book (ISSN: 0018-5078) v72 420-3 Jl/Ag 1996

Rochman, Hazel. The Booklist interview: Karen Cushman; Booklist (ISSN: 0006-7385) v92 1700-1 Je 1-15 1996

Flying starts; Publishers Weekly (ISSN: 0000-0019) v241 36-40 Jl 4 1994

Writing from the heart: an interview with Karen Cushman; Cricket (ISSN: 0090-6034) v24 42-6 Je 1997

Hendershot, Judith. Interview with Newbery medal winner Karen Cushman; The Reading Teacher (ISSN: 0034-0561) v50 198-201 N 1996

Something about the author, v89; facts and pictures about authors and illustrators of books for young people. Gale Res. 1997

Profile of Karen Cushman copyright ? H.W. Wilson Company.