Sally Hobart Alexander
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Sally Hobart Alexander | |
|---|---|
| Born | Owensboro, Kentucky |
| Alma mater | Bucknell University University of Pittsburgh |
| Occupation | Writer of children's books |
| Awards | Christopher Award (1995) |
Sally Hobart Alexander is an American writer of children's literature. She is best known for her books about her experiences as a blind person.
Sally Hobart was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the daughter of Robert Hobart and Kate Hobart.[1] She graduated from Hazelton High School,[2] and Bucknell University.[3] She earned a master's degree in social work at the University of Pittsburgh.[4]
Career
After her undergraduate degree, Alexander taught third-grade students in Southern California,[5] when a rare disease caused blood vessels in her retina to break, which eventually led to total blindness.[6] She told Contemporary Authors, "I was unhappy to leave that last year [of my teaching], when my visual difficulties began. I entered an excellent training program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for newly blinded adults. For a year afterward, I taught at the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind."[4]
Alexander embarked on a writing career in children's fiction with the publication of her first book, Mom Can't See Me (1990), in which Alexander depicts a loving family that has learned to cope with having a blind parent. She has published eight titles as of 2008,[7] including two memoirs, Taking Hold (1994) and On My Own (1997),[8][9] and a young readers' biography of Laura Bridgman.[10]
Alexander teaches literature and writing in the Chatham University Master of Fine Arts Program in Children's and Adolescent Writing.[4] She received the 1995 Christopher Award for Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness.[1]
Personal life
Sally Hobart married Bob Alexander, an English professor. They have two children and live in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.[11] In recent years, she has developed hearing loss, and wears hearing aids.[7] "Although I don't minimize the challenges of my deaf-blindness," she wrote in 2010, "I do believe that were I to lose all my hearing, I would still find meaning and joy in reading and writing books."[12]
