Meet SC Authors

Betsy Byars

Betsy Byars has written over sixty books for young people. She began her writing career five years after her graduation from Queens College in Charlotte by publishing short magazine articles. As she began to read to her children, her interest in writing for young people began. Her first book, Clementine, was published in 1962 and since then she has authored many award-winning books including the Newbery Medal winner The Summer of the Swans. Byars lives with her husband, Ed, on an air strip in upstate South Carolina. Her young reader books include Boo's Dinosaur, The Golly Sister Books, The Ant Books, The Joy Boys, and The Little Horse Books.

Joyce Hansen

Joyce Hansen has been writing books for children and young adults for over 20 years. Joyce was born and raised in New York City, which is the setting of her early contemporary novels. Joyce’s first children’s book, The Gift-Giver, was published in 1980 and inspired by her own Bronx childhood and by her students. She continued to teach and to write until retiring from teaching in 1995. Hansen currently lives in South Carolina with her husband and writes full time. Her children's books include Women of Hope, I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly, Which Way Freedom?, The Captive, Out From This Place. and Yellow Bird and Me.

A letter from Betsy Byars

A letter from Joyce Hansen

Now more than at any other time our children need to be exposed to the power of literature as they begin their journey to adulthood; as they experience the transforming possibilities of a piece of literature that truly speaks to the heart. In these often difficult times, when many of our young people wonder whether there will be a world for them to grow up in, we need to expose them to those voices and ideas that can sustain them.

There is an African proverb that says: when an elder dies the village loses a library. In societies that draw on oral traditions to pass down their literature, the storytellers, griots, grandmothers, and grandfathers were the living libraries that passed on the myths and stories that explained natural phenomena, the history of the nation, the exploits of warriors and rulers, and the fables and proverbs that taught people how to act and interact with one another.

Our own literary traditions, reflecting the need that all of us have to affirm our existence and bring order to our lives, are not that far removed from the oral traditions of our ancestors. We no longer sit around the campfire drawing strength from the wisdom of our elders. The wisdom of our “Tribe” is now written. Though youngsters have any number of distractions, everyone still loves a tale well told, or a story well written. Literature is personal and powerful.

Parents, teachers, librarians, and all of us who care about children and children’s literature might be the last line of defense — the new age griots — connecting children with literature. We really don’t know what will strike a child’s or a young person’s fancy, so we have to expose the youngsters who come before us to as wide a range of literature as we can and let them make the choice. We must gather all of our children around the campfire and find those tales and those stories that will strengthen and sustain ourselves and each and every one of them.

Joyce Hansen

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