Kaye Gibbons - 1960

Raleigh

By Madelyn R.

I. Biography

Kaye Gibbons is an inspiring writer from Nash County, North Carolina. Nash is a small county about fifty miles east-northeast of Raleigh, it is a very rural part of North Carolina. She was born in 1960 and is a woman of principles and integrity. One of her "rules" for life is, 'working with fear.' I think that fear gives Gibbons the inspiration to write.

"My mother did commit suicide," Gibbons remembers. This happened when Gibbons was only ten years old. Her father drank himself to death.  Most of her personal struggles are shown through her writing, especially in her first book , that she wrote while attending UNC Chapel Hill, called Ellen Foster. During her teenage years, she studied at Rocky Mount High School in Nash County. Gibbons was diagnosed with manic depression at age twenty, yet it never held her back for living out her dream to become a writer.

After Ellen Foster (1987) she wrote A Virtuous Woman (1989) and A Cure For Dreams (1991). Book reviewers, including Oprah, say that most of her personal experiences are included in these short stories. Her fourth book, Charms For The Easy Life , was published in March of 1993, and her fifth book, Sights Unseen, both made the National Best Sellers list.

As I have mentioned, Gibbons usually writes about personal struggles that have happened throughout her life. For instances in Ellen Foster, her mother commits suicide and her father drinks himself to death.  Many people have noticed that her books all contain the idea of how women deal with their burdens. A Cure For Dreams is about four generations of women who have learned each other's life lessons. The one thing that the women, in the novel, learn is that life is not always how you expect it to be.

Kaye Gibbons is currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and his two children, along with her three children, a cat, a gerbil, and five dogs.

As you can tell, life has presented many roadblocks to Gibbons but she followed what her heart said, and look where she ended up.

II. Awards

Kaye Gibbons has won many awards for her writing, including…

1. 1990/Pen Revson Award for the best work of fiction published by a writer under the age of 35
2. Heartland Prize given by the Chicago Tribune
3. Chevalier de L'Orde de Arts et Des Lettre, (A French award)  Gibbons was the youngest person to ever receive it.
4. Two Best Sellers

http://www.bookspot.com
http://www.randomhouse.com

This essay was submitted by a student of Leslie Andres a teacher at Lake Norman Charter School in Huntersville, North Carolina.