Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1934 – February 19, 2002) was an award-winning author of children's books. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great, for which she won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books and the Newbery Medal in 1975.

Named for her grandfather's home state, Virginia Hamilton grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She attended Antioch College and then transferred to Ohio State University. She married the poet Arnold Adoff in 1960.

Hamilton's first book, as a child was "The Novel". In 1967, she published Zeely. Over the course of her career, Hamilton won numerous awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

The Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth has been held at Kent State University each year since 1984.

She died of breast cancer in 2002.