She was 1997's National Teacher of the Year, and the Ohio State Department of Education named her Ohio Pioneer in Education.ĭraper was awarded the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 1997. Sharon Draper has five Coretta Scott King Book Awards - Author Award Winner: 1998 Forged by Fire, 2007 Copper Sun Author Honor: 2004 The Battle of Jericho, 2008 November Blues John Steptoe Award for New Talent: 1995 Tears of a Tiger. Draper lives in Cincinnati with her husband. In 2000, she retired from teaching in order to spend more time on her writing. She credits this letter with helping her realize that she could be a writer. Among those who wrote to congratulate her was Roots author Alex Haley. Upon winning, Draper was awarded five thousand dollars and her story was published. Her own writing career began in 1990 when, as a teacher, she was challenged by a ninth-grade student to "write something." She entered a short story entitled "One Small Torch" to a writing contest through Ebony magazine. During this time she became locally famous for her "Draper Paper," a challenging research paper assigned to graduating seniors. Post-graduation, she began teaching in Cincinnati public schools. Draper earned her Bachelor's Degree, majoring in English, from Pepperdine University and her Master's of Arts degree in English from Miami University of Ohio in 1974.
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