Jeri H. Watts has worked as a public school teacher for twenty-seven years. She has written numerous short stories as well as the picture book
Keepers, published in 1997.
Kizzy Ann Stamps is her first middle-grade novel. She lives in Virginia, where she is a professor at Lynchburg College.
I grew up the first few years on a farm in Bedford County, Virginia, and that proved very helpful when I was writing Kizzy Ann Stamps, because she lives on a farm in that same place! I wish I’d had a dog like hers, but we did have our own wonderful dogs—and other animals too. After I had my own family, I had a superbly lazy, continuously hungry black Lab named Nimbus who kept my two daughters company as they grew up!
My father was a storyteller, and I love to tell stories too—mostly on paper, though. Having been a reader all my life, it seems natural to turn to the page when I tell my stories! I’ve been with children many years, and I love being with them, so writing for children is one way to stay with them, especially now that I teach at the college level. I used to work with children on their writing. Now I work with teachers about teaching writing to their students, so it is still important to me for children to write. There is a writer inside everyone, I believe, and it starts with the reader inside each of us!
Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:
1. I have an identical twin sister.
2. I hate licorice.
3. I collect watches.
