Forest of Reading® 2010

Nominee
Greener Grass
Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
Born in Dublin, Ireland and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Caroline calls both home. She currently lives in Kanata with her husband, Tony, and their children, Liam and Marion. After graduating from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Religious Studies, Caroline worked with children for over fifteen years in roles such as teacher, seminar facilitator, mentor, and coach. She teaches Writer’s Craft half time at All Saints High School in Kanata. Caroline began her first novel Egghead (Red Deer Press, 2008) following a weeklong workshop led by Jerry Spinelli. He suggested she draw upon an emotionally charged memory and just start writing. She recalled seeing a boy getting bullied in grade 8 and feeling powerless to stop it. Once she started writing that story, the characters took over. Her second novel Greener Grass (Red Deer Press, 2008) is a young adult historical fiction set in Ireland, 1847, during the peak of the potato famine. Thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, Caroline had the opportunity to research this novel in Ireland’s famine museums, heritage centers, rural life exhibits, cemeteries, and aboard replica famine ships. These experiences paired with Caroline’s Irish roots have brought a richness and integrity to Greener Grass. The sequel, Wild Geese (Red Deer Press, 2010) also received a Canada Council for the Arts Grant last year. It follows the story across the Atlantic, through Grosse Ile and into Bytown. This series began as a writing assignment Caroline started back in grade 11 when she was a Writer’s Craft student. Caroline’s fiction, non-fiction and poetry for children regularly appear in Highlights for Children, Guideposts for Kids, Living Faith for Kids, and the Focus on the Family magazines Clubhouse Jr. and Clubhouse. Her humour columns are published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, The Vancouver Sun, Capital Parent, and The Ottawa Citizen and she received honourable mention in The Joker is Wild humour writing contest. Other articles and commentary appear in periodicals such as The Word Among Us, Focus on Your Child, and Guideposts Magazine. For excerpts, photos, novel studies and more information or to contact Caroline visit www.carolinepignat.com http://carolinepignat.squarespace.com/


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