Authors & Illustrators

Katherine Ayres

Katherine Ayres has been a lover of books since earliest childhood, when she began inventing stories before she could write them. Her childhood home state of Ohio is the setting for her first two novels, "Family Tree" and "North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad". Her present home, Pittsburgh, is the setting for her third novel, "Voices at Whisper Bend". As part of her research for this book, which takes place during World War II, she spent a day on a tugboat on Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River. Ayres travelled farther for her fourth and fifth books. "Silver Dollar Girl" begins in Pittsburgh, but quickly moves to the untamed terrain of the Colorado Rockies during the 1880s Silver Boom. "Under Copp’s Hill" visits turn-of-the-century Boston’s North End and explores mysteries that lurk in a settlement house and pottery. "Stealing South" returns to the 1850s in Ohio and Kentucky and is a companion book to "North by Night". Ayres’ love of literature was a theme during her first career as a teacher and elementary school principal, and she continues to enjoy working with children and teachers. She teaches Writing at Chatham College, where she also coordinates the Masters of Arts in Children’s and Adolescent Writing.

Last updated on 24/07/07 at 22:38:06
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