Illinois Authors

Claire Hartfield

Born:
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Hartfield is a life long resident of Chicago. She attended Chicago public schools and received her her law degree from the University of Chicago.

Biography: Hartfield is an attorney and an author. She received her B.A from Yale University and her law degree from the University of Chicago. As a lawyer, she has specialized in school desegregation litigation. More recently, she has been involved in setting policy and creating programs in a charter school setting on Chicago's African-American West Side.Part of the impetus for the writing of her book, ''Me and Uncle Romie,'' is a historical fiction picture book based on the life and art of world-renowned collage artist, Romare Bearden. She wanted to inform children about an important African-American visual artist, and to give them an expanded understanding of the breadth of the African-American experience. The story also explores the commonality of experience that is shared by people across cultures.Her book, ''A Few Red Drops'', is about the Chicago Race Riot. She heard stories of the 1919 race riot from her grandmother, who lived in the Black Belt in Chicago at the time, and was moved to share this history with younger generations.

• '''''Me and Uncle Romie'''''
• -- Notable Book of the Year, Smithsonian Magazine
• -- Junior Library Guild Choice
• -- 100 Books for Reading and Sharing List, New York Public Library

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Children; Young adult readers

Email: claire@meanduncleromie.com
Website: http://www.meanduncleromie.com/claire/
Claire Hartfield on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=claire+hartfield

Selected Titles

	A few red drops : ISBN: 0544785134 OCLC: 953709906 This book examines the events and forces leading up to the 1919 race riots in Chicago.
	Me and Uncle Romie : ISBN: 9780803725201 OCLC: 42061014 Dial Books for Young Readers, New York : ©2002. A boy from North Carolina spends the summer in New York City visiting the neighborhood of Harlem, where his uncle, collage artist Romare Bearden, grew up. Includes a biographical sketch of Bearden and instructions on making a story collage.