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Dianne E. Gray grew up in rural Nebraska, not far from the land her great-grandparents homesteaded in 1869. It is this rural setting, its history, and her fascination with the day-to-day lives of its people that found their way into her first two novels—Holding Up the Earth and Together Apart, both of which have received numerous literary awards and honors. Her third novel, Tomorrow, the River, will be published in the fall of 2006. It is set on the Upper Mississippi River in 1896. Having lived for the past 10 years in the Mississippi River town of Winona, MN, a novel set on this magnificent river was a work of the heart, a spiritual necessity. Dianne came to writing after a 20-year career in corporate information systems. Recently, she has married these two passions by developing Hodgepodge, an application of animated creative writing software for young people. Dianne holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Hamline University. She and her husband, Lee, have two married daughters and three totally awesome grandsons. |
Tomorrow, the River With a long list of her mother's dos and don'ts swirling in her head, and with a ticket that will get her only halfway home at the end of summer, fourteen-year-old Megan Barnett boards the eastbound train. Her destination, the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa, is twenty-four hours and a host of unfamiliar seatmates away. The most pleasant of these characters is Horace, an engineering student whose passion for newspapers, combined with a sharp curve of the tracks, land him nearly in Megan's lap. The parade of interesting strangers- some of whom aren't what they seem- doesn't end with Megan's arrival in Burlington, where she joins her sister's family on the riverboat, the Oh My. River travel, as Megan quickly learns, is fraught with danger, both on the water and off. A keen eye, for seeing beneath the surface of things, can make all the difference. Leaving a trail of discarded rules and newspaper headlines in her wake, Megan takes on the river and reaps its rewards. Awards |
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Together Apart Isaac, on the run from his oppressive stepfather, needs time to hammer out a plan for his future. Hannah needs space to mend the hurt of losing two brothers to the blizzard-space she can't find in her family's crowded soddie. Determination, a healthy dose of luck, and a handbill advertising a position for an "Apprentice in a Growing Business Concern" draw first one, then the other of these former schoolmates to the stately home of the unconventional Eliza Moore. Like the stumbled-upon haystack that sheltered Hannah and Isaac from the blizzard and saved their lives, Eliza's house becomes a safe, if temporary, haven. One day Hannah and Isaac will need to face their lives again, out in the open. That day is coming all too soon. Author Dianne E. Gray based this fictional story on a real event in history: the "School Children's Blizzard," a fierce storm that engulfed the plains states on January 12, 1888. Striking many regions during the school day, the death toll included many rural children. In imagining the aftermath of this tragedy, Gray conceived two memorable young people whose stories are bound together by the storm. Awards |
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Holding Up the Earth It has been eight years since Hope's mom died in a car accident. Eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home. Eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope's newest foster mom, has taken her from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Hope is set adrift, anchored only by her ever-present and memory-heavy backpack. Awards |
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Copyright 2002- Children's Literature Network. |
