Rita Williams-Garcia

Biography
Rita Williams-Garcia was born in Queens, New York. Her father was in the military, so they moved around, from Queens, to New York to Arizona, California, Georgia, and then back to Queens.

Rita Williams-Garcia developed her reading skills early in life, teaching herself to read at age two by learning to associate letters with their sounds, partly through looking at billboards and partly through the efforts of her older sister, who would often share her books with her. By the time she entered school, Williams-Garcia was already an accomplished reader and writer of poetry and stories, most of them involving her siblings, a brother and a sister.

Williams-Garcia was exposed to racial issues while growing up during the 1960s. She remembers discussing race relations and racism in the classroom in the aftermath of the 1968 riots and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the sixth grade, she went looking for literature for young adults that featured black protagonists. She discovered biographies of historical figures, such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, and a single novel, Mary Ellen, Student Nurse. Her teachers encouraged her to write for herself, and at the age of fourteen she published her first story in Highlights magazine.

Williams-Garcia graduated from Hofstra University in 1980, where she studied with authors Richard Price and Sonia Pilcer. During her time at Hofstra University she said “real life” got into the way of her writing. She started dancing and became more politically involved. In her senior year in college, Williams-Garcia enrolled in a creative-writing class. In that class, she combined her outreach work, teaching high school girls remedial reading, with her writing workshop training to pen an early version of the story that became her first novel, Blue Tights. After graduating she was married to Peter Garcia and had two children. She later divorced from Peter but they remain close friends.

Themes
Rita Williams-Garcis is known for their realistic portrayal of teens of color,  Generally the youths portrayed in her novels have problems that possibly many of her readers have, too. In her novels, Williams-Garcia is recognized for her great character development and her wonderful understanding of teenage t houghts and emotions. It is well noted that Williams-Garcia focuses on self-realization in her novels. Readers seem to identify with her characters because she has a great insight into adolescent feelings and uses a great deal of humor. Her novels aim to help the reader with self-realization, self-expression, and self-identification.

Writing Style
Rita Williams-Garcia has a talent for letting her characters speak naturally and believably.

Biographical Information
Rita Williams-Garcia said, “I always asked for a pencil and paper in kindergarten while my classmates colored pictures. By twelve, I was sending short stories to magazines only to be politely rejected. My family had just moved back to Jamaica, New York after a short stint in Georgia, and before that, California. My sister, brother and I weren’t allowed to play outside in Queens, New York, so I entertained myself by writing stories. I sold my first short story to Highlights Magazine at 14, and sold another to Essence magazine six years later while a student at Hofstra.” Her advice for young writers: "Write a little bit every day. I began by writing 500 words a day, but I think 25-100 words a day, every day will help a beginning writer gain confidence and a flow of thoughts and writing. Read widely! Be adventurous with your reading. Nothing helps writing like having the sound of good writing in your mind’s ear. Try new things. New foods. Visit new places. Then write about your experiences."

Books

 * Blue Tights, Lodestar Books, 1988
 * Fast Talk on a Slow Track, Dutton, 1991, reprint, Paw Prints, 2008
 * Like Sisters on the Homefront, Lodestar Books, 1995, reprint, Paw Prints, 2008
 * Every Time a Rainbow Dies. HarperCollins Publishers. 2001. reprint, HarperCollins, 2002
 * No Laughter Here. HarperCollins. 2004. reprint HarperCollins, 20075940408b1cbc8.image.jpg
 * Jumped. HarperCollins. 2009. reprint, HarperCollins, 2010
 * One Crazy Summer. HarperCollins. 2010
 * P.S. Be Eleven, 2013
 * Gone Crazy in Alabama, 2015
 * Bottle Cap Boys: Dancing on Royal Street, 2015


 * Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, 2017

Awards
One Crazy Summer- Newbery Honor Book, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Timesbestseller

The sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both the Coretta Scott King Award winners

Jumped, a National Book Award finalist, ALA Best Books for Young Adults

No Laughter Here, ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Every Time a Rainbow Dies,Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book, ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Fast Talk on a Slow Track, ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Blue Tights, Coretta Scott King Honor Book

Like Sisters on the Homefront, Coretta Scott King Honor Book