Lucy Jane Bledsoe  Lucy Jane Bledsoe (born February 1, 1957 in Portland, Oregon, United States) is a novelist who has received many awards for her fiction, including two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships, a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Yaddo Fellowship, the "Arts & Letters" Fiction Prize, the "Saturday Evening Post" Fiction Award, the Sherwood Anderson Prize for Fiction, and a Pushcart nomination. She is a six-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Bledsoe was born into a large family in Portland, Oregon, United States, where she grew up. Bledsoe stated in an interview that she started writing stories when she was young and had always wanted to become a writer. She was inspired to write by her high school teacher. From 1975 to 1977, Bledsoe attended Williams College. She earned a B.A. at University of California at Berkeley in 1979. Bledsoe writes both fiction and non-fiction books, and for both children and adults. Bledsoe has said that her works are influenced by many authors, among them James Baldwin, Willa Cather, Adrienne Rich, and Barbara Kingsolver. Bledsoe often writes about the intersection of family, wilderness, and survival. In 1985, she received the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. In 1995, Bledsoe published "Sweat: Stories and a Novella", which helped her garner her first Lambda Literary Award finalist title. In 1997, she wrote her first adult novel "Working Parts", for which she received the 1998 Stonewall Book Award - the American Library Association Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Award for Literature. In 2002, Bledsoe was awarded a California Arts Council fellowship in literature. Bledsoe's 2002 children's book "Hoop Girlz", which is about a ten-year-old girl who loves playing basketball but doesn't make the school team, was selected as one of "Booklist" 's Top 10 Sports Books for Youth of the year and featured among Core Collection: Sports Fiction for Girls. Bledsoe has travelled to Antarctica three times and written four books about Antarctica: "The Big Bang Symphony;" "The Ice Cave: A Woman's Adventures from the Mojave to the Antarctic; How to Survive in Antarctica;" and "The Antarctic Scoop". Bledsoe has written science curriculum for National Geographic and several other educational organizations, including the George Lucas Educational Foundation and the SETI Institute.