Occupation Writer Spouse Ian Grant | Name Gwen Grant Role Writer | |
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Born Gwendoline Ellen Rewston
5 May 1940 (age 83)
Worksop, Nottinghamshire England ( 1940-05-05 ) Books Private - Keep Out!, Little Blue Car, Jonpanda, Race Day, Fox Fire | ||
Gwen Grant is an English writer primarily known for her works for children and young adults and is the author of seventeen published novels and picture books. In addition, her short stories and poems have been anthologised in collections by leading publishers, including Oxford University Press and Macmillan. Her initial novel, Private – Keep Out, was shortlisted for both the Carnegie Medal and The Other Award, and she has since been the recipient of a number of additional awards and shortlisted for others. She was also the subject of a documentary by Thames TV and her works have been featured on BBC and ITV segments.
In addition to her contributions as a writer, Gwen Grant has also done important outreach work in schools, stimulating interest in reading and creative writing in children by leading individually crafted classes and seminars. She also coaches aspiring new writers, serving as a respected guide and editor of their beginning efforts.
Biography
Gwendoline Ellen Rewston was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire in 1940, in the early days of World War II. At the time, the town's economy was based almost entirely on the fortunes and misfortunes of the coal mining industry. Gwen, the fourth of six children, was the daughter of George Rewston, a general labourer and miner, and his wife, Alice (née Hall), a homemaker. Her early life and experiences were strongly impacted by the poverty of a miner's family and what she heard and observed of the dangerous working conditions of the "pit", as the mines were commonly known, and by the deprivations and strains of the war. Despite that, her parents taught her that there was opportunity for everyone. For an anthology of women's writing published in the United States, she wrote,
Although I am English, having been born and raised in Worksop, a small town in Nottinghamshire, the words that have always meant a lot to me come from the American Declaration of Independence of 1776: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.'
When I was growing up, my family struggled to make ends meet but poor as we were, I was always encouraged to believe that if the commitment was there, I could do anything I set my mind to. I wanted to be a writer and because my parents believed that all men are created equal and taught that to their children, I set out full of hope and confidence until I made my dream a reality.
I've read other words since then that could equally well have been part of my family's belief system also: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal.' (Elizabeth Cady Stanton – first women's rights convention, New York, 1848.)
Gwendoline Rewston married Ian Grant and is known personally and professionally as Gwen Grant. She became the mother of twin sons, and is now a grandmother and great-grandmother.
In 1975, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from The Open University and in the same year, began her writing career. Her first picture book, Matthew and His Magic Kite, was published in 1977. In 1978, she published Private – Keep Out and followed up with Knock and Wait. Her output since has been prodigious and she continues her work today. In 2010, she contributed a story to Stories for Haiti, an anthology published as a charitable project to help bring relief to the victims of the destructive earthquake there.