Sherwood Smith facts for kids

Sherwood Smith (born May 29, 1951) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer for young adults and adults. Smith is a Nebula Award finalist and a longtime writing group organizer and participant.

Smith's works include the YA novel Crown Duel. Smith also collaborated with Dave Trowbridge in writing the Exordium series and with Andre Norton in writing two of the books in the Solar Queen universe.

In 2001, her short story "Mom and Dad at the Home Front" was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Smith's children's books have made it on many library Best Books lists. Her Wren's War was an Anne Spencer Lindbergh Honor Book, and it and The Spy Princess were Mythopoeic Fantasy Award finalists. Smith was formerly an officer of the Mythopoeic Society under her birth name, Christine Ione Smith, but prefers "Sherwood" both personally and professionally.

Biography

Sherwood Smith was born May 28, 1951, in Glendale, California. On her website, Smith describes herself as a middle-aged woman who has been married for over thirty years. Besides writing, she taught part-time at an elementary school, though she is now retired. She has "two kids, rescue dogs, and a house full of books."

Smith began making books out of taped paper towels when she was five years old. When she was 8, she started writing about another world, Sartorias-deles, though she soon switched to making comic books of her stories, which she found to be easier. Although she first tried to send out her novels when she was 13, nothing sold. However, some of the novels Smith first wrote as a teen, including Wren to the Rescue, were sold after she learned to rewrite.

In the years it took her to learn to rewrite, Smith "went to college, lived in Europe, came back to get [her] masters in History, worked in Hollywood, got married, started a family and became a teacher." She received her degrees from the University of Southern California (B.A.) in 1973 and the University of California, Santa Barbara (M.A.) in 1977. In 2010 she became a member of Book View Cafe.

Smith currently resides in California.