Tamara Ellis Smith

I was a creative kid. I wrote in journals, I wrote poems, I wrote plays, I made clothes, I cooked. But I was not patient. In fact, I was almost allergic to patience. Truly. If something took more than a minute to do, then I got all itchy and breathed heavy like a dog on a hot day. If I couldn’t figure something out quickly, then I believed it wasn’t worth doing. Boy was I wrong. I had to work a long time to become a writer. I did a lot of other kinds of jobs, especially teaching. I became a mom. I went to Vermont College of Fine Arts. I read a lot of books. And I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. Now I live in Vermont again. With my own family – four kids and my husband. My favorite things to do are running on the trails by my house with my friends and our dogs, making soup and chocolate desserts, writing stories for kids, and – still – reading. Oh, and practicing my patience.