Gloria Whelan

Whelan also writes short stories and poetry for adults. Her stories have been published in numerous literary quarterlies and anthologies including "Prize Stories: O'Henry Awards. Illinois Press published a collection of her stories, "Playing with Shadows" In 2013 Wayne State University published a collection of stories and a novella, "Living Together," which Joyce Carol Oates called "elegantly composed," and Nicholas Delbanco called, "Pitch perfect," and "A pleasure to read."

Whelan was almost fifty-five when Putnam's published A Clearing in the Forest in July 1978. In nearly thirty-five years since then, she has written fifty-two books of fiction for children and young adults. Many have been set in rural northern Michigan, where she may be considered a regional author, but her settings include Africa, China, Vietnam, India, Czarist and communist Russia.

In 1948, she and neurologist Joseph L. Whelan were married. They had two children and lived in the Detroit area where she was employed in social work. During that time she also wrote short stories and poetry.

She earned the bachelor's degree in 1945 and the Master of Social Work in 1948 at the University of Michigan.

Gloria Whelan (born November 23, 1923) is an American poet, short story writer, and novelist known primarily for children's and young adult fiction. She won the annual National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2000 for the novel Homeless Bird. She also won the 2013 Tuscany Prize for Catholic Fiction for her short story What World Is This? and the work became the title for the independent publisher's 2013 collection of short stories.

Gloria was the daughter of William Rewoldt and Hildegarde Kilwinski Rewoldt, born 1923 in Detroit. She read many books as a girl, sometimes dictated stories that her baby sitter transcribed, and wrote poetry. She edited the high school newspaper.

Listening for Lions is set in 1919 British East Africa (now in Kenya).