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Kate DeCamillo
Place of Birth: Pennsylvania
Birth Date:
March 25, 1964
Autobiographical Statement:
I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in
1964. For the first five winters of my life, I got pneumonia. This was at
the time when geographical cures were still prescribed. The doctor
thought a warmer climate might help. And so, in 1969, my mother and
brother and I moved to a small town in Central Florida. And there, I
grew up outside -- running around barefoot, swimming in the lakes and
the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, sitting high in the branches of a
jacaranda tree and reading, reading, reading.
In college, at the University of Florida,
professors told me that I had a "way with words." I began to dream in
earnest of becoming a writer, of telling stories for a living. And for
nine years after college, I did exactly that.
I dreamed.
I wandered from job to job -- selling
tickets at Circus World, planting philodendrons in a greenhouse, calling
bingo at a campground, running rides at an amusement park -- and the
whole time, I talked incessantly about being a writer and read books
about writing and imagined, in great detail, my life as a writer.
I did everything except write.
And then, when I was twenty-nine years
old, I had an epiphany -- it occurred to me that I could easily spend
the rest of my life doing nothing but dreaming. So I sat down and
thought very seriously about exactly what it took to be a writer. I came
to the conclusion that one thing, absolutely, was required: writing.
And so, scared, uncertain, terrified of
failure, I began. I made myself write two pages a day. And in this way,
I wrote a short story. It was a very bad short story. I rewrote it. It
got marginally better. I rewrote it again. And again. And again. I sent
it off to a magazine. They rejected it. And I was in business. Sort of.
In 1994, I moved from Florida to
Minnesota and got a job working as a "picker" at a book wholesaler. I
was assigned to the third floor -- the floor where all the children’s
books were kept -- and I spent my days filling orders for bookstores and
libraries. Before long I started reading what I was picking. I read
picture books and poetry books and board books and one day, I picked up
a novel written for children called The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963. Christopher Paul Curtis’ book changed my life. I read it
and decided I wanted to try to write a novel for kids.
And so, during the worst winter on record
in Minnesota, at a time when I was homesick for the warmth of Florida
and suffering mightily from a disease I refer to as "dog withdrawal" (I
was living in an apartment where no dogs were allowed), I started to
write a story about the south, about friendship, about a girl and her
dog. The story eventually turned into a book called Because of
Winn-Dixie. Amazingly, Candlewick Press offered to publish it. And
fourteen years after I started dreaming, the dream came true.
Today, I make my living as a writer and
the first thing I do every morning when I wake up is offer a small
prayer of thanks. Then I sit down at my desk and get to work. I make
myself write two pages. Even though I am (still) scared, uncertain and
terrified of failure, I do the work. I make myself tell the story that
wants to be told.
Profile:
Kate DiCamillo grew up in Clermont, Florida, a small citrus town 30
miles west of Orlando where she moved with her mother and her older
brother Curt when she was five years old. She attended Rollins College
and the University of Central Florida before she earned a B.A. in
English from the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1987. A 1998
McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers helped support her while she
wrote her first book.
Because of Winn-Dixie,
published in 2000, received immediate acclaim, appearing on all the
year’s best books lists, garnering the Josette Frank Award from Bank
Street College as well as a Parent’s Choice Gold Award, and culminating
in it being named a Newbery Honor Book for 2001. As popular with
children as with critics, Winn-Dixie has also won a number of
state sponsored children’s choice awards, including the Dorothy Canfield
Fisher Award in Vermont and the Blubonnet Award in Texas. Her second
novel, The Tiger Rising, was a finalist for the National Book
Award in the youth category.
DiCamillo’s father left the family when
she was five years old, and in her writing she explores the recurring
themes of loss, redemption, and trying to fit in. Her books also
exemplify the healing quality of friendship. DiCamillo lives in
Minneapolis where she takes part in a writing critique group that
provides support and community while living her dream of being a writer.
Selected Works:
Because of Winn-Dixie, 2000; The Tiger
Rising, illus. by Chris Sheban, 2001; The Tale of Despereaux,
illus. by Timothy B. Ering, 2003.
Suggested Reading:
Contemporary Authors, Vol. 192, 2002;
Something About the Author, Vol. 121, 2001; Orlando Sentinal,
September 28, 2001; Horning, Kathleen T., "the Tale of DiCamillo,"
School Library Journal, April 2004.
Website: www.katedicamillo.com
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