Lynn Joseph
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Lynn Joseph
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| occupation = {{hlist|Writer|lawyer}}
| education = {{ubl|University of Colorado (BA)|Fordham University School of Law (JD)}}
| genre = Children's books
| notable_works =
| awards = {{plainlist|
- {{Awards|Américas Award|year=1994|title=Mermaid's Twin Sister}}
- {{Awards|Américas Award|year=2000|title=The Color of My Words}}
}}
| website = {{URL|https://www.lynnjosephbooks.com/}}
}}
Lynn Joseph is an American lawyer and author of children's books.{{Cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |last=Cullinan |first=Bernice E. |author2=Diane Goetz Person |page=146 |year=2005 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8264-1778-7 }} Her novella The Color of My Words won an Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature and a Jane Addams Children's Book Award.
Early life and education
Lynn Joseph was born in Trinidad and moved to the United States at the age of nine.{{cite news |title=Lynn Joseph |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000308203/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=b9e6f180 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors |date=July 25, 2014}} After moving to the United States with her family, she spent summers in Trinidad. As a student, she wrote poems and stories, and she published her work in student publications.
She graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.A. in 1986 and from Fordham University Law School with a J.D. in 1993. After college, she worked as an editorial assistant at Harper & Row Children's Books. During her career as an attorney, she worked for the City of New York in litigation, and for Rohn & Carpenter, a law firm based in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Literary career
In 1990, Joseph published the children's book Coconut Kind of Day: Island Poems, which features 13 poems narrated by a child describing her life in Trinidad.{{cite news |title=Coconut Kind of Day: Island Poems |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-688-09119-4 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=August 1, 1990}} In 1991, she released A Wave in Her Pocket: Stories from Trinidad, a children's book of folklore from Trinidad,{{cite news |title=A Wave in Her Pocket |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/a-wave-in-her-pocket/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=April 15, 1991}} and released The Mermaid's Twin Sister: More Stories from Trinidad in 1994.{{cite news |title=The Mermaid's Twin Sister |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/the-mermaids-twin-sister/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 1, 1994}}{{cite journal |last1=O'Hara |first1=Sheilamae |title=The Mermaid's Twin Sister: More Stories from Trinidad |journal=Booklist |date=April 15, 1994 |volume=90 |issue=16 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A15450667/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=9c00af32 |access-date=18 January 2022|publisher=American Library Association}} In 1992, she released An Island Christmas, which describes a Trinidad Christmas from the child narrator's perspective.{{cite news |title=An Island Christmas |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/an-island-christmas/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=August 1, 1992}} In 1994, she also released Jasmine's Parlour Day, a children's book featuring a story of a mother and daughter.{{cite news |title=Jasmine's Parlour Day |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-688-11487-9 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=May 2, 1994}}{{cite news |title=Jasmine's Parlor Day |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/jasmines-parlour-day/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 15, 1994}}
In 1998, Joseph released Jump Up Time: A Trinidad Carnival Story, a children's book about two sisters during the Trinidad Carnival,{{cite news |title=Jump Up Time |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/jump-up-time/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=August 1, 1998}}{{cite journal |last1=Lempke |first1=Susan Dove |title=Jump Up Time: A Trinidad Carnival Story |journal=Booklist |date=October 15, 1998 |volume=95 |issue=4 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A55053614/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=209fb014 |access-date=18 January 2022 |publisher=American Library Association}} and Fly, Bessie, Fly, a children's book about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman aviator.{{cite news |title=Fly, Bessie, Fly |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-689-81339-9 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=November 2, 1998}}{{cite news |title=Fly, Bessie, Fly |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/fly-bessie-fly/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=November 1, 1998}} In 2000, she released The Color of My Words, a novella written for children that features a child protagonist and her life in the Dominican Republic.{{cite news |title=The Color of My Words |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/the-color-of-my-words/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=August 15, 2000}}
In 2013, Joseph released the novel Flowers in the Sky, featuring a teenage protagonist and her life in the Dominican Republic and the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City.{{cite news |title=Flowers in the Sky |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-029794-7 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=January 14, 2013}}{{cite news |title=Flowers in the Sly |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/flowers-sky/?page=2 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=February 15, 2013}}{{cite journal |last1=Hilbun |first1=Janet |title=Flowers in the Sky |journal=School Library Journal |date=May 1, 2013 |volume=59 |issue=5}} via EBSCOhost{{cite journal |last1=Coats |first1=Karen |title=Flowers in the Sky by Lynn Joseph (review) |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books |date=May 2013 |volume=66 |issue=9 |page=423 |doi=10.1353/bcc.2013.0355 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/505887/summary |access-date=28 January 2022 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press}} In 2015, she released Dancing in the Rain, a novel featuring Dominican children and their experiences in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks era.{{cite news |title=Dancing In The Rain |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lynn-joseph/dancing-in-the-rain-joseph/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=August 1, 2016}}
Awards
She won the 1994 Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature for The Mermaid’s Twin Sister, and she won the award again in 2000 for The Color of My Words.{{cite journal |last1=York |first1=Sherry |title=Book Awards: Ethnicity, Diversity, & Hope |journal=Library Media Connection |date=2005 |volume=24 |issue=3 |page=39 |issn=1542-4715}} The Color of My Words also earned a Jane Addams Children's Book Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjab/jaddams.htm|title=CCBC: Jane Addams Book Award|publisher=|accessdate=13 January 2017}} Her manuscript for The Truth Is was a finalist for the 2015 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.{{cite web |url=https://repeatingislands.com/2016/04/19/lynn-joseph-writing-is-always-first/ |title=Lynn Joseph: 'Writing is Always First' |date=19 April 2016 |first=Julien |last=Neaves |website=Repeating Islands |access-date=17 January 2022}}
Publications
- Coconut Kind of Day: Island Poems (1990)
- A Wave in Her Pocket: Stories from Trinidad (1991)
- An Island Christmas (1992)
- The Mermaid's Twin Sister: More Stories from Trinidad (1994)
- Jasmine's Parlour Day (1994)
- Jump Up Time: A Trinidad Carnival Story (1998)
- Fly, Bessie, Fly (1998)
- The Color of My Words (2000){{cite news |title=The Color of My Words |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-028232-5 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=July 31, 2000}}{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=John |title=The Color of My Words |journal=Booklist |date=October 15, 2000 |volume=97 |issue=4 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A67185959/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=59da5ea1 |access-date=18 January 2022 |publisher=American Library Association}}{{cite journal |last1=Edwards |first1=Laurie |title=The Color of My Words. |journal=School Library Journal |date=November 2001 |volume=47 |issue=11 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A80851424/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=c1d0213b |access-date=18 January 2022 |publisher=Library Journals, LLC}}
- Flowers in the Sky (2013)
- Dancing in the Rain (2015){{Cite web|url=https://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n90-604631|title=Joseph, Lynn|last=|first=|date=|website=WorldCat|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-02-01}}
Personal life
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{official site|https://www.lynnjosephbooks.com/}}
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Lynn}}
Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States
Category:American children's writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American writers
Category:Writers from New York (state)
Category:Trinidad and Tobago writers
Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago women writers
Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago writers
Category:21st-century Trinidad and Tobago women writers