Amy Treadwell's Web Page


	About Me My parents taught my brothers and me to love reading from an early age. I grew up reading everything I could: Heidi, The Black Stallion, Little Women, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, ghost stories, Choose-Your-Own Adventures, Narnia, Jane Yolen, Anne McCaffery, and Terry Brooks. I was 10 years old when I first discovered The Sword of Shannara, and I stayed up until 4:00 am reading it. I spent the next two days utterly absorbed in the tale of Shea and Flick. I knew then I was hooked on fantasy. I became a chain reader. I would put one book down only to grab the next. The librarians knew me as the girl who closed down the library every Saturday. As I grew older, I discovered Robin McKinley, and I knew what kind of fantasy I wanted to write. My goal since then has been to create stories with strong female heroes that women and men of all ages can admire. I want to leave the world with more stories like the ones I love. I would be remiss if I didn't mention teaching. Teaching is a family affair for me: my mother, grandmother, grandfather, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins are teachers. I spent three years teaching high school English in Moore, Oklahoma, and I learned more about writing from teaching there than I did in all of the previous 25 years. I feel as proud of my students' growth as writers as I do my own. They helped me become a better writer. Before that I taught for 4 years at the University of Oklahoma's Writing Center, and I got the opportunity to teach the coolest class in the world: a survey of the female heroes of modern fantasy. We read novels and short stories from some of the best popular fantasy around, and we watched movies and analyzed book covers and tried to get at the heart of the concept of heroism and how it's affected by gender. It was a great class, and I hope to teach it again someday. Aside from that, I have also taught writing workshops for students and teachers through the Oklahoma Writing Project, and I'm indebted to that organization for giving me time and space and encouragement to delve into my own writing. I am an artist as well, though that's more of a hobby. I work in stained glass, oils and watercolor, as well as many, many craft projects. My work has won many a first-prize ribbon at the state fair. My family consists of my husband Nick, a Lhasa Apso and a Siamese cat. We live in Pittsburgh.

About Me

My parents taught my brothers and me to love reading from an early age. I grew up reading everything I could: Heidi, The Black Stallion, Little Women, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, ghost stories, Choose-Your-Own Adventures, Narnia, Jane Yolen, Anne McCaffery, and Terry Brooks. I was 10 years old when I first discovered The Sword of Shannara, and I stayed up until 4:00 am reading it. I spent the next two days utterly absorbed in the tale of Shea and Flick. I knew then I was hooked on fantasy. I became a chain reader. I would put one book down only to grab the next. The librarians knew me as the girl who closed down the library every Saturday. As I grew older, I discovered Robin McKinley, and I knew what kind of fantasy I wanted to write. My goal since then has been to create stories with strong female heroes that women and men of all ages can admire. I want to leave the world with more stories like the ones I love.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention teaching. Teaching is a family affair for me: my mother, grandmother, grandfather, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins are teachers. I spent three years teaching high school English in Moore, Oklahoma, and I learned more about writing from teaching there than I did in all of the previous 25 years. I feel as proud of my students' growth as writers as I do my own. They helped me become a better writer. Before that I taught for 4 years at the University of Oklahoma's Writing Center, and I got the opportunity to teach the coolest class in the world: a survey of the female heroes of modern fantasy. We read novels and short stories from some of the best popular fantasy around, and we watched movies and analyzed book covers and tried to get at the heart of the concept of heroism and how it's affected by gender. It was a great class, and I hope to teach it again someday. Aside from that, I have also taught writing workshops for students and teachers through the Oklahoma Writing Project, and I'm indebted to that organization for giving me time and space and encouragement to delve into my own writing.

I am an artist as well, though that's more of a hobby. I work in stained glass, oils and watercolor, as well as many, many craft projects. My work has won many a first-prize ribbon at the state fair.

My family consists of my husband Nick, a Lhasa Apso and a Siamese cat. We live in Pittsburgh.