Carol Plum-Ucci: Difference between revisions

| caption = Carol Plum-Ucci

| birth_place = [[Atlantic City]], [[New Jersey|NJ]], United StatesU.S.

| occupation = [[novelistNovelist]], [[essayist]]

'''Carol Plum-Ucci''' (born August 16, 1957 in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]) is a [[Young-young adult fiction|young adult]] [[novelist]] and [[essayist]]. Plum-Ucci’sUcci's most famous work to date is ''[[The Body of Christopher Creed]]'', for which she won a [[Michael L. Printz Award]] in 2002 and was named a Finalist to the [[Edgar Allan Poe Award]]. Describing her subjects as "the most common, timeless, and most heart-felt teenagers," Plum-Ucci is widely recognized for her use of the South Jersey shore to set scenes for engaging characters embracing suspense themes.

Plum-Ucci grew up on the barrier island of [[Brigantine, New Jersey]], where she attended the public schools until the age of thirteen.<ref name=ThePress>Good, Daniel. [http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/113/story/204508.html "A mature subject for local author's new teen novel"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802232047/http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/113/story/204508.html |date=August 2, 2008 }}, ''[[The Press of Atlantic City]]'', July 13, 2008. Accessed September 2, 2008. "The work station in her Absecon home resembles a child's bedroom....Plum-Ucci, a Brigantine native, situates her stories in the towns and beaches from her childhood."</ref> She then went to Atlantic City Friends’ School, where her grandmother, Neva Ingersoll, taught advanced high school mathematics. She graduated from [[Holy Spirit High School (New Jersey)|Holy Spirit High School]] in 1975. Her father, Neil Plum, and her paternal grandmother, Ads Plum, partnered in the funeral business, owning Plum Funeral Homes in Brigantine, Atlantic City, and Ventnor. Plum-Ucci largely attributes her writer’swriter's imagination to lying awake at night, above the Brigantine funeral parlor, listening to the sounds downstairs.

She received her bachelor’sbachelor's in communication from [[Purdue University]] in 1979. She served as feature editor of the ''[[Purdue Exponent]]'', a two-year post. After Purdue, Plum-Ucci was a freelance writer in the Chicago area for several years. She became Assistant to the Producer of the [[Miss America Pageant]] in Atlantic City in 1984. She later served as Staff Writer and Director of Publications of the Miss America Organization and Miss America Scholarship Foundation, producing up to a dozen publications a year for volunteers and participants. Plum-Ucci retired in 1999, two months after receiving her first advance on royalties from The Body of Christopher Creed from Harcourt—the first novel she sold.

* ''[[The Body of Christopher Creed]]'', 2000 {{ISBN |0-7868-1641-4}}

* ''What Happened to Lani Garver'', 2002 {{ISBN |0-15-205088-4}}

* ''The She'', 2003 {{ISBN |0-15-205453-7}}

* ''The Night My Sister Went Missing'', 2006 {{ISBN |0-15-204758-1}}

* ''Streams of Babel'', 2008 {{ISBN |0-15-216556-8}}

* ''The Fire will fall'', 2010 {{ISBN |0-15-216562-2}}

[[Category:WomenAmerican women children's writers]]

[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]

[[Category:WomenAmerican women writers of young adult literature]]

[[Category:WomenAmerican women thriller writers]]

[[Category:21st-century American essayists]]