Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Carol Lynch Williams, who grew up in Florida and now lives in Utah, is an award-winning novelist with seven children of her own, including six daughters. She has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College, and won the prestigious PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship.
The Chosen One was named one of the ALA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Best Books for Young Adult Readers; it won the Whitney and the Association of Mormon Letters awards for the best young adult novel of the year; aand was featured on numerous lists of recommended YA fiction. Carol's other novels include Glimpse, Miles From Ordinary, The Haven, Waiting, Signed, Skye Harper, and the Just in Time series.
Carol facilitates the children's writing conferences at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. She lives in Utah with her family.
Carol Lynch Williams's website
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Where did you first get the idea to write
The Chosen One?
Many years ago I heard of a young woman who
ran from her polygamist community. She was
dragged home, beaten and yet she ran again. I
knew at that momentat least a decade ago
that I would write this novel.
One of my goals in writing the book was to show
the difference between polygamist groups and
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
of which I am a member. Some people still think
that most men in Utah have more than one wife.
Polygamists are not Latter-day Saints. I wanted to
show that in my book.
Around the time you were starting to write the
book, your daughter brought home a young man
whose polygamous father was in jail. In what
ways did this boys continued presence in your
life affect the direction of the book?
When Chris came into our lives I was, indeed,
just beginning the novel. I asked him a few
questions, but Chris life was, in many ways,
very different from Kyras. He didnt live on a
compound (though his family did live out in the
desert away from people), he was allowed to
choose how he believed when he got older, and
while life proved to be pretty tough for him, he
didnt have to ...
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