Adrienne Coleman is planning a Read In featuring author, Glennette Tilley Turner on Friday, Sept. 30 from Noon to 12:30 in the IRC. All are welcome to attend.
The following information about the author is from the Illinoisauthors.org website:
Biographical and Professional Information
Glennette Tilley Turner is an author, historian and educator. In 1955, Turner earned her B.A. at Lake Forest College. After college she wrote advertising copy for a woman’s dress store. It was during this time that she wrote her first book, Surprise for Mrs. Burns. Regardless of her work in advertising, her heart was in education. After marrying and starting a family she went back to school to get her teaching credentials and began teaching elementary school.
Turner taught in the Chicago Public School System, the Maywood-Melrose Park Public School System and, in 1968, she began teaching in the Wheaton-Warrenville Public School System, where she remained for twenty years. In 1979, Turner earned her master’s degree in History and Juvenile Literature at Goddard College.
As a teacher she wrote skits with bios and these turned into her books, Take a Walk in Their Shoes and Follow in Their Footsteps. During this time she also wrote a monthly biographical sketch in Ebony, Jr! magazine. Not long after, Turner started researching and writing about the Underground Railroad publishing the books, The Underground Railroad in Illinois, Running for Our Lives and An Apple for Harriet Tubman.
Now retired, she devotes much of her time to writing. The Underground Railroad has been the focus of much of her historical research. She also writes biographies which include: Fort Mose: and the Story of the Man Who Built the First Free Black Settlement in Colonial America, Billy the Barber’s Mirror, Take Walk in Their Shoes: Biographies of 14 Outstanding African Americans , Follow in Their Footsteps and Lewis Howard Latimer.
She was a contributor to In Praise of Our Fathers and Mothers, Encyclopedia of Chicago and Women Building Chicago: 1790 – 1990. Excerpts of her work have been included in reading materials published by Open Court, Harcourt Brace, Houghton Mifflin, and Scott Foresman.
Turner is also a consultant, a historical researcher and lecturer on her knowledge of the Underground Railroad. As a member of the Underground Railroad Advisory Committee of the National Park Service, she testified before subcommittees of the U.S. Senate and House and the Illinois Senate in support of Underground Railroad legislation. Her Underground Railroad program is recognized by the NPS Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. She has made presentations at National Network to Freedom Conferences, written articles about the Underground Railroad for several magazine and newspaper publications, and has been interviewed by C-SPAN and other cable networks. She also narrated the Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Harriet Tubman.
Mrs. Turner has received many awards for her work including: the Studs Terkel Humanities Award, the Margaret Landon Award, The Alice Browning Award of the International Black Writers Conference, the Irma Kingsley Johnson Award of the Friends of Amistad, and was inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Center of Chicago State University. In 2011 she received a lifetime achievement award from Operation Uplift and honored by Top Ladies of Distinction. Most recently, she was the 2012 recipient of Network’s Wilbur Siebert Award from the National Underground Railroad Program of the National Park Service for her extensive Underground Railroad writings and efforts to make this significant chapter of American history known. She is also the 2014 recipient of the DuPage County NAACP Medgar Evers Award.
Published Works
- Surprise For Mrs. Burns, Albert Whitman, 1971
- The Underground Railroad in DuPage County, Illinois, Newman Educational Publishers, 1986
- Take a Walk in Their Shoes, Dutton, 1989
- Lewis Howard Latimer, Silver Burdett, 1990
- Follow in Their Footsteps, Puffin, 1999
- The Underground Railroad in Illinois, Newman Educational Publishing, 2001
- Running For Our Lives, Newman Educational Publishing, 2004
- An Apple for Harriet Tubman, Albert Whitman & Company, 2006
- Fort Mose: And The Story of The Man Who Built The First Free Black Settlement In Colonial America, Abrams Books, 2010
- Billy the Barber’s Mirror: Reflecting on an Untold Lincoln Story, Newman Educational Publishing, 2014
For more information about the author, visit her website: http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/glennette-tilley-turner
BANNED BOOKS WEEK is SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 – OCTOBER 1, 2016, and this year’s theme is “STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT TO READ.”
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens because of the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read. As part of the display, we have included a poster with suggestions for getting involved.