Book - Hardcover

While the Kentucky native is known mostly for her children's books, her work reflects her great versatility. She has authored fifteen picture books. A poet, she recently wrote Counting on the Woods (DK Ink, 1998), which Booklist, in a starred review, called "a gem of a counting book." She has also written three novels for children. With a Hammer for My Heart (DK Ink, 1997), hailed by The Alan Review as "a powerful novel, compelling, engagingly written, with strongly painted characters," was her first novel for adults. She has also written two plays. Her most recent picture book for DK Ink is Book, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, it was hailed as "beautiful in spirit and presentation" by the Houston Chronicle.

After graduating from Centre College with a degree in English, Lyon received her master's degree in English from the University of Arkansas and her doctorate in English Literature and Creative Writing from Indiana University. She wrote her dissertation on Virginia Woolf. She now resides in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband and two sons.

Both an author and a teacher, Lyon has been a Writer-in-Residence at Centre College and also taught in the English Program there. She works with students and teachers on writing, and she teaches at the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School. Her author appearances have included speaking engagements at the International Reading Association conventions, as well as at various library and educational conferences.

Lyon has written for many magazines, including The New York Times Book Review, The American Voice, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Language Arts (Interview), The Horn Book, Book Links (Interview)¸ Ohio Journal of the English Language Arts, and Library Talk (Profile).

The honors and awards she has received for her work are many. Her Catalpa, a volume of adult poems, was chosen as the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year; Borrowed Children, a novel for children, won the Golden Kite Award (SCBWI); Basket was the winner of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award; Comes a Tide, a picture book, was chosen as a Reading Rainbow Feature; and Mountain won the Lamont Hall Award.

George Ella has a new picture book, One Lucky Girl, illustrated by Irene Trivas, also published by DK Ink.

Peter Catalanotto has illustrated two books for DK Ink, both by Susan Marie Swanson: Getting Used to the Dark: 26 Night Poems and Letter to the Lake. He has illustrated seventeen books by other authors, as well as four of his own: They Painter, Dylan's Day Out, Christmas Always..., and Mr. Mumble. He is at work on a fifth. A frequent visitor to schools across the country, he lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.