Homeless Bird

Gloria Whelan is an American poet, short story writer, and novelist for children and adults. She won the 2000 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for the novel Homeless Bird. Whelan's books include many historical fiction novels, including a trilogy set on Mackinac Island and a... quartet series set in communist Russia. Whelan is also the author of short stories which have appeared in The Ontario Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review, and other literary quarterlies. Her collection of short stories, Playing with Shadows, was published by the Illinois Press. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies and in Prize Stories: the O. Henry Awards. Whelan is, according to Liz Rosenberg in the Chicago Tribune, "an accomplished, graceful, and intelligent writer." 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. She earned the bachelor's degree in 1945 and the Master of Social Work in 1948 at the University of Michigan.
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