{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}} [[File:STEPHANIE HEMPHILL (2058583642).jpg|thumb|Stephanie Hemphill 2007]]{{Short description|American author of books for young adults}} '''Stephanie Hemphill''' is an American author of books for [[young adult fiction|young adults]]. She has lived in Los Angeles and Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2012/04/5q-poet-interview-series-stephanie.html|title = 5Q Poet Interview Series: Stephanie Hemphill|date = April 11, 2012|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Poetry for Children}}</ref>
== Biography == Hemphill grew up in Chicago and began writing at an early age, as part of the Young Authors afterschool program.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = http://authorlink.com/interview/biographer-stephanie-hemphill-digs-deep-for-sylvia-plaths-emotional-truths/|title = Biographer Stephani Hemphill Digs Deep for Sylvia Plath's Emotional Truths|date = August 20, 2007|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Authorlink|last = Morris|first = Ellen Birkett}}</ref> Hemphill published poetry for adults first, but had always wanted to write for children.<ref name=":0" /> Eventually, she took a class at the [[University of California, Los Angeles|University of California Los Angeles]] (UCLA) about writing children's poetry and the class inspired her to write her first novel.<ref name=":0" />
== Work == Hemphill's first novel, ''Things Left Unsaid: A Novel in Poems'' (2005), is realistic fiction about a friendship between two girls which alternates between toxic and healthy. The characterization of the main characters was considered excellent and the pacing of the story praised by ''[[School Library Journal]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16010624&site=ehost-live|title = Things Left Unsaid: A Novel in Poems|last = Korbeck|first = Sharon|date = February 2005|journal = School Library Journal|access-date = August 18, 2015|volume = 51|issue = 2|pages = 136–137|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The way that Hemphill writes ''Things Left Unsaid'', according to Sara K. Day, allows the reader to become a confidante of the narrator, as if the reader is a friend, too.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Reading Like a Girl: Narrative Intimacy in Contemporary American Young Adult Literature|last = Day|first = Sara K.|publisher = University Press of Mississippi|year = 2013|isbn = 9781621039600|location = Jackson, Mississippi|pages = 35, 45–50}}</ref> ''Things Left Unsaid'' won the [[Myra Cohn Livingston Award]] in 2006.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
Hemphill won a 2008 [[Michael L. Printz Award|Printz Honor]] for her book, ''Your Own, Sylvia'', a [[Verse novel|novel in verse]] about the poet, [[Sylvia Plath]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.teenreads.com/authors/stephanie-hemphill|title = Biography: Stephanie Hemphill|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Teen Reads|publisher = The Book Report, Inc.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/bookawards/printzaward/previouswinners/Printz08|title = 2008 Michael L. Printz Award|date = 2008|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Young Adult Library Services Association|publisher = The American Library Association}}</ref> In working on ''Your Own, Sylvia'', Hemphill shared that this novel faced many challenges, one of which was surviving the "censoring gauntlet of the Plath estate," but that she enjoyed writing about her because she loved Plath as an artist.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=28135026&site=ehost-live|title = Your On, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath|date = December 9, 2007|journal = Kirkus Reviews|access-date = August 18, 2015|url-access=subscription |volume = 75|issue = 23|page = 9}}</ref> Hemphill also felt a kinship to Plath during the time of her writing, since her marriage was ending and she was in the grips of being both overworked and depressed.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=34919236&site=ehost-live|title = Printz Award Honor Speech|last = Hemphill|first = Stephanie|date = 2008|journal = Young Adult Library Services|access-date = August 18, 2015|volume = 7|issue = 1|pages = 8–9}}</ref> She also worked in a manner similar to Plath, writing poetry every day, journaling and also writing to her mother, as Plath often did.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=49324855&site=ehost-live|title = Stephanie Hemphill|date = January 3, 2000|journal = Baker & Taylor Author Biographies|access-date = August 18, 2015|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' reviewed ''Your Own, Syliva'', writing about the novel that "rarely is there such a striking and successful blend of literary form and subject."<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/05/06/for-young-readers-73/|title = For Young Readers|last = Russell|first = Mary Harris|date = May 6, 2007|work = Chicago Tribune|access-date = August 18, 2015}}</ref> ''Your Own, Sylvia'' also won the Myra Cohn Livingston Award in 2008.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = http://www.childrensliteraturecouncil.org/myra_cohn_livingston_award.htm|title = Myra Cohn Livingston Award|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Children's Literature Council of Southern California}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com/2008/10/celebrating-stephanie-hemphill.html|title = Celebrating Stephanie Hemphill & Poetry!|date = October 18, 2008|access-date = August 18, 2015|website = Jill Corcoran Books|last = Cocoran|first = Jill}}</ref>
Hemphill's 2010 novel, ''Wicked Girls'', is a free-verse historical novel of the [[Salem witch trials]].<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.star-telegram.com/living/family/moms/article3967608.html|title = Books With Mix of Fact, Fiction May Have Young Readers Wanting MOre|last = Smant|first = Lisa|date = September 7, 2010|work = Star-Telegram|access-date = August 18, 2015}}</ref> ''Wicked Girls'' was a 2010 ''[[Los Angeles Times Book Prize|L.A. Times]]'' [[Los Angeles Times Book Prize|Book Prize]] Finalist.<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/02/latimes-2010-book-prize-finalists.html|title = Books, Authors and All Things Bookish|date = February 22, 2011|work = Los Angeles Times|access-date = August 18, 2015}}</ref> ''[[The Horn Book Magazine]]'' has singled out her novels in verse to highlight, calling the poetry in her 2012 work, ''Sisters of Glass'', "elegant."<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=85726476&site=ehost-live|title = Novels in Verse|last = Hedeen|first = Katrina|date = March 2013|journal = Horn Book Magazine|access-date = August 18, 2015|volume = 89|issue = 2|pages = 143–144|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 2013 she wrote, ''Hideous Love'', which is also written in free-verse is about the writer [[Mary Shelley]].<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/hideous-love-the-story-of-the-girl-who-wrote-frankenstein-by-stephanie-hemphill/2013/10/08/e5445ae0-2b8f-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html|title = Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote 'Frankenstein,' by Stephanie Hemphill|last = Nolan|first = Abby McGanney|date = October 8, 2013|newspaper = The Washington Post|access-date = August 18, 2015}}</ref> ''Hideous Love'' was considered by to be faithful to the history of Shelley's life, especially in imagining the difficulties of living under the principals of [[free love]] and "the compromises culture required of a woman of genius during the time period."<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein |last=Coats |first=Karen |date=November 2013 |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books |doi=10.1353/bcc.2013.0836 |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=156–157|s2cid=144285003 }}</ref>
While Hemphill's novels received much praise from various sources others have been more critical. Reviewers for ''[[The Lion and the Unicorn (journal)|The Lion and the Unicorn]]'' called the verse in ''Your Own, Sylvia'' "[[doggerel]]."<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v032/32.3.sorby.html|title = The 2008 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry|last1 = Sorby|first1 = Angela|date = September 2008|journal = The Lion and the Unicorn|doi = 10.1353/uni.0.0409|access-date = August 18, 2015|last2 = Thomas Jr.|first2 = Joseph T.|volume = 32|issue = 3|pages = 344–356|s2cid = 145239965|url-access = subscription}}</ref>
== References == <!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically --> {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okEy0HKhDEQ Interview by Ed Spicer of Stephanie Hemphill] – Video
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemphill, Stephanie}} [[Category:American women poets]] [[Category:Writers from Chicago]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:21st-century American women]]