Durbin, William 1951-

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DURBIN, William 1951-

PERSONAL: Born February 17, 1951, in Minneapolis, MN; son of Charles (a barber) and Dona (a bookkeeper) Durbin; married October 14, 1971; wife's name Barbara (a teacher); children: Jessica Durbin Froehle, Reid. Education: St. Cloud State University, B.S., 1973; Middlebury College, M.A. 1987. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, canoeing.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—2287 Birch Pt. Rd., Tower, MN 55790. Agent—Barbara Markowitz, 1505 Hill Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90041. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and educator. Teacher of English in Minnesota public schools, grades four through college, including at Cook High School; speaker at writing conferences and at schools and libraries.

MEMBER: National Education Association, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Children's Literature Network.

AWARDS, HONORS: Great Lakes Booksellers Association Book Award, Minnesota Book Award, Bank Street College Children's Book of the Year, and New York Public Library Books for the Teen-Age selection, all 1998; New River Press Poetry Competition finalist; Lake Superior Contemporary Writer's Series winner.

WRITINGS:

The Broken Blade, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1997.

Tiger Woods (biography; "Golf Legends" and "Black Americans of Achievement" series), Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1998.

Arnold Palmer (biography; "Golf Legends" series), Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1998.

Wintering (sequel to The Broken Blade), Delacorte (New York, NY), 1999.

The Song of Sampo Lake, Wendy Lamb Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Blackwater Ben, Wendy Lamb Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of poems, essays, and short stories to periodicals, including English Journal, Great River Review, Milkweed Chronicle, Confrontation, North American Mentor, Canadian Author and Bookman, Boys Life, Loonfeather, Modern Haiku, Nebraska Language Arts Bulletin, Breadloaf News, and NCTE.

Durbin's books have been translated into several languages, including Italian, and have been produced in Braille editions.

"MY NAME IS AMERICA" SERIES

The Journal of Sean Sullivan, a Transcontinental Railroad Worker: Nebraska and Points West, 1867, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant: Hibbing Minnesota, 1905, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

The Journal of C. J. Jackson, a Dust Bowl Migrant: Oklahoma to California, 1935, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

ADAPTATIONS: The Broken Blade was adapted as a cartoon serial published in Boys' Life magazine.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Darkest Evening, scheduled for publication by Scholastic in 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Making his home on the shores of Minnesota's Lake Vermilion, author and teacher William Durbin shares his enthusiasm and interests in history, golf, and canoeing in the pages of his books for young readers. In addition to biographies of golfing greats Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer, he has penned a number of works of historical fiction that have been praised by reviewers.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1951, Durbin attended St. Cloud University before earning his master's degree at Middlebury College and spending a year at Lincoln College, Oxford on a scholarship from the school's Bread Loaf School of English. Trained as a teacher, he worked for decades as a teacher and mentor to writers at Bread Loaf as well as for those students participating in writing projects sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. He was inspired to begin writing for young adults after speaking to author Gary Paulson during the award-winning young-adult writer's workshop appearance at Durbin's wife's school.

Durbin's first book, 1997's The Broken Blade, was inspired by his interest in the French voyageur fur traders who canoed the waters of the northern Midwest and Canada during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the book, which takes place in 1800, Pierre LaPage's father supports his family as an oarsman for the North West Fur Company on the long, heavy voyageur canoes used by fur traders to transport pelts out of northern Canada. When his father is unable to make the trip after severing his thumb in an accident, thirteen-year-old Pierre leaves school, determined to take his place on the 1,200-mile trip from Montreal to Grand Portage that requires incredible physical strength and fortitude. Noting that Durbin fills the novel with action and describes in vivid detail the events that "transform . . . Pierre from classroom-softened boy to hard-muscled man," a Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books contributor Elizabeth Bush added that The Broken Blade "should appeal to reluctant readers as well as adventure buffs." Dubbing the book "an impressive coming-of-age tale," a Kirkus reviewer added that "readers will embrace . . . [Pierre's] path to true bravery, strength of character, and self-reliance."

Wintering, which Durbin published in 1999, finds Pierre once again leaving his home in Montreal and heading north into the Canadian wilds, this time to work at the fur company's winter camp where he learns how to survive the region's brutal conditions with help from the native Ojibwa people. Dealing with the death of two close friends, as well as with the hardships of daily life, allow for a continuation of the coming-of-age theme, according to Booklist contributor Susan Dove Lempke, who noted that Durbin's use of period journals and diaries "gives the novel an authentic feel but doesn't overshadow the unfolding story of Pierre's growth and maturation." Dubbing Wintering an "engaging sequel," a Kirkus reviewer praised the novel as "well-written and atmospheric," and packed with "plenty of facts" about how the Native Americans of the Great Lakes region lived.

Durbin has produced several works of historical fiction for Scholastic's "My Name Is America" series. In The Journal of Sean Sullivan, a Transcontinental Railroad Worker, he recounts the experiences of a fifteen-year-old Irish immigrant who works alongside his father on the Transcontinental Railroad in 1867. Traveling from state to state across the western territory, Sean writes of conflicts between the railroad and the Plains Indians cowboys, discrimination suffered by Chinese laborers, and extensive financial corruption, creating a narrative that "focuses on historic details to bring the Old West vibrantly alive," according to Booklist reviewer Roger Leslie, who dubbed The Journal of Sean Sullivan "a rollicking, atmospheric journey" into the past.

The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant takes place in 1905 as fifteen-year-old Otto sails from Finland to America with his mother and sisters to join his father in the iron-rich lands of Minnesota. Working as a miner, Otto finds himself caught up in the early union movement, and joins other workers in a fight for safe working and living conditions in the company-owned shantytowns of Minnesota's Mesabi Iron range. "Historical notes and authentic photos round out this captivating, dramatic view of the past," maintained Leslie in his Booklist review. Durbin's third contribution to the "My Name Is America" series, The Journal of C. J. Jackson, a Dust Bowl Migrant, focuses on a thirteen year old forced to abandon the family farm during the devastating drought of the late 1920s that forced many Midwest farming families into lives of poverty as migrant workers. Noting that the novel would provide young readers with a good introduction to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, School Library Journal contributor Ronni Krasnow added that The Journal of C. J. Jackson features a "likeable protagonist" and "effectively conveys the plight of Dust Bowl families."

Durbin's stand-alone historical novel The Song of Sampo Lake takes place at the turn of the twentieth century, as a Finnish farming family makes their new home in the author's home state of Minnesota. Matti, whose achievements are constantly overshadowed in the eyes of his father by those of his older brother, works as a store clerk and teaches English at the local one-room schoolhouse in addition to working on the family farm. Other works of historical fiction include Blackwater Ben, published in 2003.

In addition to writing and teaching, Durbin lectures to school and library groups as well as at writing conferences, and focuses his talk on topics such as how to begin a narrative, how to get published, writing and researching historical fiction, generating ideas through wordplay, and overcoming writers' block.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Wintering, p. 1061; October 15, 1999, Roger Leslie, review of The Journal of Sean Sullivan, a Transcontinental Railroad Worker, p. 428; October 1, 2000, Roger Leslie, review of The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant, p. 332.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February, 1997, Elizabeth A. Bush, review of The Broken Blade, pp. 203-204; April, 1999, Elaine. A. Bearden, review of Wintering, p. 276.

Faces, January 2002, review of The Journal of Otto Peltonen, p. 46.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 1996, review of The Broken Blade, p. 1688; December 1, 1998, review of Wintering, pp. 1732-1733; October 1, 2000, review of The Journal of Otto Peltonen, pp. 1421-1422.

Kliatt, May, 2001, Deane A. Beverly, review of Wintering, p. 18.

St. Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN), November 2, 2000, Mary Ann Grossman, "Fictional Diary Mines the Tumultuous History of the Iron Range."

School Library Journal, September, 2000, Ronni Krasnow, review of The Journal of C. J. Jackson, a Dust Bowl Migrant, p. 220.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2000, Nancy Zachary, review of Tiger Woods, pp. 202-203; December, 2000, Cindy Lombardo, review of The Journal of Otto Peltonen, p. 348.