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Voigt, Cynthia (1942 - )

Genre: Children's Literature, Young Adult

Cynthia Voigt, a resident of Deer Isle since the early 1990s, was born in Boston on 25 Feb. 1942, raised in Connecticut, went to Dana Hall School, and is a 1963 Smith College graduate.

She was a high school English teacher in Glen Burnie and Annapolis, Maryland, and continued teaching during the early years of her writing career.

Voigt's first book was published in 1981. The idea for the book came to her when she saw several children waiting by themselves in a car. Although she was working on a novel that would later be published as Building Blocks (1984), she put it aside and began writing Homecoming, the story of the abandoned Tillerman children. When it was published, she received immediate favorable recognition from reviewers and quickly became and remains one of the most popular writers of young adult books.

Voigt addresses many of the issues and fears faced by today's adolescents including friendship/popularity, physical handicaps, sexual abuse, loneliness/isolation and drug addiction.

In addition to her contemporary novels, Voigt has written several historical novels set in the middle ages (Kingdom Series).

Her versatile writing talent is also expressed in her mystery novels.

In 1995, Voigt received the Margaret Alexander Edwards Award. The award, named after a noted Young Adult Services librarian, is given in recognition of a writer's collective work rather than a single book.

She was the 2004 recipient of the Maine Library Association Youth Services Section's Katahdin Award for lifetime achievement in children's literature.