Shanley-Dillman, Chris
1970—
Place of Birth: Fort Wayne, IN
Place of Principal Residence: Upper Peninsula
Biography:
Chris Shanley-Dillman was born in 1970 in Fort Wayne, IN. Growing up her parents frequently read aloud to her and her brothers. All the while encouraging their daughter’s love of reading, this pastime continued as the children grew, progressing from children’s books to classics like To Kill a Mockingbird. The author currently lives in the Upper Peninsula with her husband David, who is a wildlife manager for the Forest Service. Family is very important to Shanley-Dillman, whether her parents, brothers, husband, and stepdaughter, or her many pets. The author attended Purdue University where she met her husband and earned a BS degree in Forestry. Never working a wildlife job, Shanley-Dillman has spent time as a golf course greens keeper, a factory worker, and an employee in several greenhouses. She is now happy to be able to devote time to writing instead.
Inspired to write by her little brother, Shanley-Dillman wrote her first story in high school. She and her friend Susan alternated writing, maintaining the motto “the pen is in your hand.” Later she took a class on writing for children and young adults. She never thought of writing for adults, perhaps because her work “stemmed from all of those books I loved growing up, the crazy adventures, innocent love stories, young people surviving in the wilderness!” Shanley-Dillman always aims to entertain with her stories, making them memorable for the reader. Her first book was a young adult novel entitled The Black Pond and her second was Finding My Light (a novel based on her ancestors). The themes of her first two books, family and the importance of self-love, are essential values for Shanley-Dillman. Another theme running through her work is her love and respect for the natural world. She hopes to inspire others to care for and respect the forests, animals, oceans and plains.
Shanley-Dillman still loves reading young adult books, and writes reviews of them on such websites as kidsreads.com and teenreads.com. She is currently working on various short stories and picture books, as well as a sequel to Finding My Light. Chris Shanley-Dillman writes, “I like my books to have a solid substance to touch the reader’s heart, something for the reader to bond with, grasp, and remember.”
Selected Works:
- The Black Pond
- Finding My Light
Critical Reception:
Reviewers have praised the eloquence and flow of Shanley-Dillman’s writing. They call The Black Pond both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Finding My Light has been labeled a delightful book with a unique concept. One reader praised it as the finest young adult novel he had read in many years.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
The author’s great-great-great grandmother was one of the first woman lighthouse keepers for the Great Lakes. Finding My Light is set in the Marquette Lighthouse and based on this ancestor’s family, who lived and worked there during the Civil War. One high school featured the novel in a class on Michigan writers, for which the publisher donated copies of the book. Shanley-Dillman’s latest work, soon to appear, is a series of ghost stories particular to the Upper Peninsula.