Talk:Connie Porter

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New Lead Section[edit]

Connie Rose Porter (born July 29, 1959) is an African-American writer best known for young-adult books. She is the seventh child, second youngest of nine children. She and her family grew up in a housing project outside of Buffalo, New York living a simple, money-tight life. Porter started writing at 14 and became a professional writer 20 years later. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree from State University of New York, Albany and her masters at Louisiana State University. She taught English and creative writing at Milton Academy, Emerson College, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She was a fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and was a regional winner in Granta's Best Young American Novelist contest.

Porter is best known for her contribution to the American Girl Collection Series as the author of the Addy "books", the coming of age stories about a pre-teenage girl named Addy Walker, who escaped from slavery in North Carolina during the American Civil War and adjusted to life and grew up in freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Six of her Addy books have gone on to sell more than 3 million copies. She is also known for her, novels All-Bright Court (Houghton Mifflin, 1991) about a family living in a northern urban "slum" in Philadelphia during the late 20th century, and Imani All Mine (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) about a 14-year-old mother struggling in a present-day inner-city world of poverty and danger.

She currently lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She lives with her mother and daughter. She describes herself as a black-female writer.

I want to go into greater detail about her childhood and early life, her when she realized she wanted to become a writer. Then I want to have a section about each of her major works mentioned in the lead section in that order: a brief section about All Bright Court, a bigger section about the Addy books because that is what most of the materials I have about her discuss, and what she is majorly known for, than another short section about Imani All Mine. I also want to put a section about awards and honors she has one. Then, if I can find the material, a section about her future

Working Bibliography[edit]

"Author started writing at age 14." The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia). (April 10, 1997 , Thursday, FINAL EDITION ): 263 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2015/07/27.

Connie Rose Porter." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 July 2015.

Contemporary Writers Series, Archive 2006-2007 | Canisius College. Canisius College, n.d. Web. 27 July 2015.

Elliot, Ian. "Connie Porter: Telling it the Way it was." Teaching Pre K - 8 25.2 (1994): 40. ProQuest. Web. 28 July 2015.

"Porter's Addy touches today's girls." St. Petersburg Times (Florida). (November 6, 1996 , Wednesday, 0 South Pinellas Edition ): 1036 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2015/07/27.

Peterson, V.R. "Connie Porter: Writing about Home." Essence 09 1991: 50. ProQuest. Web. 28 July 2015.

Reader's Guide for All-Bright Court and Imani All Mine Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, n.d. Web. 27 July 2015.

"Writer Connie Porter spins tales for Addy." USA TODAY. (December 9, 1993 , Thursday, FINAL EDITION ): 214 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2015/07/27.

Recent edits[edit]

Hi Drmies. Thank you for helping doctor up my writing on this Connie Porter page. I was just wondering if we could discuss a few of your changes.

-I understand your point about the lead section being shorter to focus on the works. However, I believe the lead section should still mention All-Bright Court and Imani All Mine. Even though those books may not be as well known as the Addy series, both have received high acclaim, particularly All-Bright Court, which was very popular before the Addy books came out. I also believe a slightly longer lead peaks the readers interest to continue reading the article.

-Additionally, in the early life section, i believe the line about her family eating biscuits and salad dressing sandwiches is relevant. The sentence gives a context and a picture of what her family was going through.

But my apologies for the confusion about the number of siblings Ms. Porter has. She is the 8th of nine children, not ten, but I realized there was an issue with my wording.

We both seem to care deeply about representing Ms. Porter. Let us please discuss. Thank you Sherrod7 (talk)

Sherrod7, no need to apologize for that confusion--writing is revising. Glad you got it right. As for the biscuits, I personally think that that kind of detail is redundant, though I don't feel that strongly about it--if you want to stick it in, in an economic fashion, go for it. You'll have seen that I added those novels to the lead--they were published with a reputable press, so they're probably worth mentioning. The lead offers more opportunities for expansion, but that's dependent on the article. That she teaches creative writing could be given more words, if the article gives more properly verified information ("after gaining an MfA in fiction from the University of Antarctica, Porter taught at the Ohio Writers' Workshop before accepting a permanent position teaching creative writing at the University of Blahblahblah"). Oh, wait, she got her MfA from LSU: I hate LSU!
But the biggest room for improvement is in the meat of the article. The "All Bright Court" section is sourced only to the book itself, and to this one NYT review (which is not cited correctly--find the review in the NYT archives; this is always the problem students have with Gale). Similar with the other sections: Amazon shouldn't be cited, Uncrowned Community Builders is not an acceptable source (and neither are the bios on the cover of her books). Surely there is more secondary material on the doll books: I just got 186 hits in JSTOR for "'American girl' dolls". Really, go to JSTOR. It has a review of All Bright Court, a review of Happy Birthday Addy, and an interesting review of a book on the Underground Railroad that mentions her. Good luck, Drmies (talk) 16:20, 20 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]