Publicity Materials

Biography

Delia Ray can remember exactly what she was doing when her lifelong fascination with old things began. She was building a fort in the woods of Tidewater, Virginia behind the 1830s-era farmhouse where she grew up. When she turned over a rotten log and found an antique key, the stories in her head began to spin. Delia is still dreaming up stories inspired by history today. The research for her books has taken her from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police archives in the Yukon Territory to an attic at the Alabama School for the Deaf to cemeteries and abandoned elementary schools scattered throughout the rural Midwest. Delia has published three non-fiction books about American history and four novels for young readers. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and been nominated for Children’s Choice lists in ten states.

Delia and her husband have three grown daughters and live on eight acres in Iowa City. One of Delia’s favorite spots on the property is the family treehouse, which has two floors, a woodstove, and a tiny porch overlooking the Iowa River that has been known to cure severe cases of writer’s block.

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