D. J. Andersen

Born in Akron, Ohio. A Graduate of Central-Hower High School and Kent State University. Wrote feature articles for the Beacon Magazine of the Akron Beacon Journal, The Lisbon Morning Journal, The Stow Citizen, The Daily Kent Stater, and The Record Courier. Published poetry in The Luna Negra and various issues of The New Kent Quarterly. Also published in Reflections: Equality, by Eber and Wein Publishing Company. The author has published under the names Deborah Andersen, Deb Andersen, Deb Ilg, and D.J. Andersen.

While working as a photographer during the 1977 Tent City uprising on the main Kent Campus, the author photographed some of the events which occurred, that collection of photos can be found in the Kent State University Library Archives Collection.

While working for the Beacon Magazine of The Akron Beacon Journal, the author wrote the first fiction ever published by that magazine, and continued to write other fiction pieces in addition to her usual feature articles.

The author also worked for the Kent State Audio Visual Department as a consultant and film editor.

A survivor of severe child abuse by adoptive parents, many of the narrative poems in the first three books (Georgia Brown's Great Escape, Skeletons Cry, and Loss Leaves Hollows) deal with that issue. ( Read the online review of Georgia Brown's Great Escape). Hopefully, other survivors of child abuse will read these narratives and know they have never been alone in their experiences and that it is possible to survive a horrific past. It is not easy to read this material, as specific instances described are raw, and not layered.

These narratives also deal with re-union with biological family, the joy, the depth, and the frailty of those relationships.

Concurrently working on a fifth book of narrative poetry, and a first novel which examines the joys and sorrow of reunion with biological family members.

The author's hobbies include painting, chess, landscaping, gardening, and almost anything relating to football.