Lynne Kositsky (born 1947) is a Canadian author of poetry and young adult historical fiction. Kositsky, who was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and grew up in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, now lives in the Niagara region of Ontario. As of 2010 she has published ten novels, set in such varied historical contexts as Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840s, Nova Scotia during the early 19th century,

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

London, and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Her books often have in common the theme of a youthful protagonist (usually, but not always, female) surviving social disruption or ostracism in a world dominated by the mistakes of adults. Her four books in the Our Canadian Girl series issued by Penguin all focus on an African Canadian ex-slave, Rachel, who is forced to relocate with her parents to Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War. Like many of Kositsky's other books, the Rachel series received critical acclaim. The first and fourth books of the Rachel series, in the series were both nominated for the prestigious Hackmatack Award, and ''A Mighty Big Imagining'' won a

White Raven Award White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, given by the

International Youth Library The International Youth Library (IYL) (, IJB) in Munich is a library that specializes in the collection of children and youth literature from around the world in order to make them available to the public, focusing on the international community. ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

to books which "contribute to an international understanding of a culture and people." ''The Thought of High Windows'' garnered extensive critical acclaim and won the

Canadian Jewish Book Award The Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were a Canadian program of literary awards, managed, produced and presented annually by the Koffler Centre of the Arts to works judged to be the year's best works of literature by Jewish Canadian ...

for Youth in 2006. Reviewers for Kirkus, ''The Washington Post'', ''Hornbook Magazine'', The Center for Children's Books, and the ''School Library Journal'' all voiced critical praise for it. Kositsky's ''A Question of Will'' (2000) deals with the

Shakespearean authorship question Image:ShakespeareCandidates1.jpg, alt=Portraits of Shakespeare and four proposed alternative authors, Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author. poly 1 1 105 1 ...

, exploring the Oxfordian perspective, and she has since co-authored with

Roger Stritmatter Roger A. Stritmatter (born 1958) is a Professor of Humanities at Coppin State University and the former general editor of '' Brief Chronicles'', a delayed open access journal covering the Shakespeare authorship question from 2009 to 2016. He was a ...

a series of articles for academic journals on the date, sources, and symbolism of Shakespeare's ''

Tempest Tempest is a synonym for a storm. '' The Tempest'' is a play by William Shakespeare. Tempest or The Tempest may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''The Tempest'' (1908 film), a British silent film * ''The Tempest'' (1911 film), a ...

''.'' A Question of Will'' was included in the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...

's "Golden Lads and Lasses" exhibit (2006)."Suggested Reading"
,
"Golden Lads & Lasses": Shakespeare for Children
,

, 21 January 21 through 13 May 2006.

Books

*''Candles'' (Roussan 1998) *''Rebecca's Flame'' (Roussan 1999) *''A Question of Will'' (Roussan 2000) *''A Mighty Big Imagining'' (Penguin 2001) *''The Maybe House'' (Penguin 2002) *''Certificate of Freedom'' (Penguin 2003) *''An Elephant Tree Christmas'' (Penguin 2004) *''The Thought of High Windows'' (Kids Can 2004) *''Claire By Moonlight'' (Tundra 2005) *''Minerva's Voyage'' (Dundurn 2009) *''Our Canadian Girl'' (Puffin Canada 2010) *With

''On the Date, Sources and Design of Shakespeare's The Tempest''

McFarland & Company McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction. Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its former ...

, 2013. *''The Plagues of Kondar'' (Dundurn 2014) *''With Fearful Bravery'' (Dancing Cat Books 2014)

Selected works

* With Roger Stritmatter
"Shakespeare and the Voyagers Revisited"
''Review of English Studies'' 58:236 (September 2007): 447-472. * With Roger Stritmatter
"O Brave New Worlde: The Tempest and Peter Martyr's De Orbe Novo" ''Critical Survey'' 21: 2 (Summer 2009): 7-42.
* With Roger Stritmatter
"A Movable Feast: The Tempest as Shrovetide Revelry" ''The Shakespeare Yearbook'' (Volume XVII): 365-404.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kositsky, Lynne 1947 births Living people 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets Anglophone Quebec people Canadian children's writers Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Canadian women children's writers Writers from Montreal 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers