Connie Rose Porter is an African-American author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 best known for her books for children and young adults. She was the third youngest of nine children of a family living in a housing project. She went on to earn degrees from SUNY Albany

University at Albany, The State University of New York

The State University of New York at Albany, also known as University at Albany, State University of New York, SUNY Albany or simply UAlbany, is a public university located in Albany, Guilderland, and East Greenbush, New York, United States; is the senior campus of the State University of New York ...

 and Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

. She has since taught English and creative writing at Milton Academy

Milton Academy

Milton Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered starting in 9th grade...

, Emerson College

Emerson College

Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...

, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a public research university located in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1869, SIUC is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system...

. She was a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference

The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...

 and was a regional winner in Granta

Granta

Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...

's Best Young American Novelist contest.

Porter's debut novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

 All-Bright Court (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991) portrayed life in a northern urban "slum" community during the late 20th century. She then began work on a series of children's books about a pre-teenage girl named Addy Walker, who escaped from slavery in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and learned the life of freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. Pleasant Company Publications (now owned by Mattel

Mattel

Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...

 and operating as American Girl

American Girl (company)

American Girl is an American line of 18-inch dolls released in 1986 by Pleasant Company. The dolls portray ten-year-old girls of a variety of ethnicities living in various times throughout American history. They are sold with accompanying books told from the viewpoint of the girls...

) published eleven of her "Addy" books between 1993 and 2003 as part of its American Girls Collection Series and in conjunction with the Addy Walker doll, which was the first non-white doll of its American Girl Collection. Porter returned briefly to a more mature and modern subject matter in 1999 to write the novel Imani All Mine (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) about a 14-year-old mother struggling in a present-day inner-city world of poverty and danger.

Published books

• All-Bright Court, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. ISBN 0-395-53271-X (1992 paperback reprint, New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-097498-2; 2000 prebound reprint, Sagebrush. ISBN 0-613-27703-1)
• Meet Addy: An American girl (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Luann Roberts), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-076-0 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-075-2)
• Addy Learns a Lesson: A school story (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-078-7 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-077-9)
• Addy's Surprise: A Christmas story (illustrations by Melodye Rosales, vignettes by Renée Graef and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1993. ISBN 1-56247-080-9 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-079-5)
• Happy Birthday, Addy!: A springtime story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-082-5 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-081-7)
• Addy Saves the Day: A summer story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-084-1 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-083-3)
• Changes for Addy: A winter story (illustrations by Bradford Brown, vignettes by Renée Graef and Geri Strigenz Bourget), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-56247-086-8 (paperback ISBN 1-56247-085-X)
• Imani All Mine, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. ISBN 0-618-05678-5 (2000 paperback reprint ISBN 0-395-83808-8)
• High Hopes for Addy (illustrations by John Thompson and Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1999. ISBN 1-56247-765-X
• Addy's Little Brother (illustrations by Gabriela Dellosso and Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2000. ISBN 1-58485-033-7
• Addy's Wedding Quilt (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Susan McAliley), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2001. ISBN 1-58485-274-7
• Addy Studies Freedom (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Renée Graef, Philip Hood, and Jane Varda), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-58485-480-4
• Addy's Summer Place (illustrations by Dahl Taylor, vignettes by Renée Graef), Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 2003. ISBN 1-58485-697-1 Mrs. Porter currently has a new book,Not Afraid.