Helen Frost

by George J. Dance

Helen Frost. Courtesy Alchetron.

Helen Frost (born March 4, 1949) is an American poet and children's writer.

Life

Frost was born in Brookings, South Dakota, the 5th child in a family of 10 children.

She has lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Scotland, Colorado, Alaska, California, and Indiana. She recalls how, the summer her family moved from South Dakota to Oregon (traveling in a big trailer and camping in places like the Badlands and Yellowstone), her father would tell the family bedtime stories, and Helen would dream about their travels, her family, and their old house. “That’s how I became a writer,” she says. “I didn’t know it at the time, but all those things were accumulating somewhere inside me.”

She earned a degree in elementary education at Syracuse University, where she studied under Philip Booth and W.D. Snodgrass. She earned an M.A. from Indiana University in 1994.

She lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her family. She worked with the Fort Wayne Dance Collective for over 10 years. She has also worked with the Fort Wayne YWCA and the Fort Wayne Youtheatre to help high school students write about how they have been affected by violence.

Recognition

Her debut collection of poetry, Skin of a Fish, Bones of a Bird, won the Women Poets Series Competition in 1993. Poems in that collection were awarded the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award and the Mary Carolyn Davies Memorial Award by the Poetry Society of America.

Her 2003 young-adult novel Keesha’s House was selected as an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award..

She received a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship in 2009.

Publications

Poetry

• Skin of a Fish, Bones of a Bird. Bristol, RI: Ampersand Press, 1993.
• As if a Dry Wind: Poems. San Antonio, TX: Pecan Grove Press, 2009.

Non-fiction

• When I Whisper, Nobody Listens: Helping young people write about difficult issues. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.

Juvenile

Verse

• Spinning Through the Universe: A novel in poems from room 214. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2004.
• Step Gently Out (illustrated by Rick Lieder). Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2012.
• Sweep up the Sun (illustrated by Rick Lieder). Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2015.
• Among a Thousand Fireflies (illustrated by Rick Lieder). Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2016.

Stories

• Keesha’s House. New York: Frances Foster Books / Farrar, Straus, 2003.
• The Braid. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2006.
• Diamond Willo. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2008.
• Crossing Stones, Frances Foster Books, 2009
• Hidden. New York: Farrar, Straus, 2011.

Non-fiction

• Your Teeth. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Brushing Well. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Food for Healthy Teeth. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Going to the Dentist. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Butterfly Eggs (illustrated by Gail Saunders-Smith). Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Caterpillars (illustrated by Gail Saunders-Smith). Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Bird Eggs (illustrated by Gail Saunders-Smith). Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Bird Nests (illustrated by Gail Saunders-Smith). Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Bird Families (illustrated by Gail Saunders-Smith). Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 1999.
• Eating Right. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• The Dairy Group. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• The Fruit Group. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• The Grain Group. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• The Meat and Protein Group. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• The Vegetable Group. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Fats, Oils, and Sweets. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• President's Day. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Memorial Day. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Keeping Water Clean. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Your Senses. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Hearing. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Smelling. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2000.
• Feeling Scared. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• The Circulatory System. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• The Digestive System. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• The Muscular System. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• The Respiratory System. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• The Skeletal System. Mankato, MN: Pebble Books, 2001.
• Fish. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2001.
• German Immigrants, 1820-1920. Mankato, MN: Blue Earth, 2002.
• Parrots. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2002.
• Boa Constrictors. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2002.
• Gorillas. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2002.
• Wind. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2004.
• Allosaurus. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
• Allosaurio = Allosaurus (with Spanish translation by Martín Luis Guzmán Ferrer). Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2007.
• Sabertooth Cat. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
• Stegosaurus. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
  • Estegosaurio = Stegosaurus (with Spanish translation by Martín Luis Guzmán Ferrer). Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2007.
• Triceratops. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
• Tyrannosaurus Rex. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
• Woolly Mammoth. Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005.
• Monarch and Milkweed (illustrated by Leonid Gore). New York: Atheneum, 2008.

  

  Diamond Willow by Helen Frost

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "Evening Primrose"

Prose

• Author's statement, National Endowment for the Arts

Audio / video

• Helen Frost at YouTube

Books

• Helen Frost at Amazon.com

About

• Helen Frost at Macmillan
• Helen Frost Official website

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