Behan, Carol Ohmart

Carol Ohmart Behan, a lifelong resident of Upstate New York and an unapologetic "child of the Sixties," devoted twenty-five years to raising a family and teaching high school English. Along the way she nurtured her writing life through journal writing and mentoring the creative writers among her students.

She credits a synchronistic encounter with the young adult writer, Robert Cormier, at a teachers' conference in 1990 as the catalyst to taking herself seriously as a writer. He signed her program that day with the words, "Start writing that novel for me."

Ten years and two "practice no...