Stephanie Tolan

Stephanie Tolan, who knew from the age of nine that she wanted to be a writer, began writing plays as well as short stories and poetry in college. A one-act farce called The Ledge that she wrote for a playwriting class was published in 1968 and is still being performed. After writing two other plays that were produced in the ’70s, she turned her primary focus to writing novels for children and young adults. When Katherine Paterson was commissioned to write a stage adaptation of her Newbery Award-winning novel Bridge to Terabithia she asked Ms. Tolan to collaborate with her, and the two, with composer Steve Liebman, enjoyed working together so much that they have been writing plays together ever since. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (published by Dramatists Play Service) was their third collaboration. Tolan herself won a Newbery Honor in 2003 for her novel, Surviving the Applewhites. She and Ms. Paterson are currently adapting that work for the stage.