Get to Know
About Me
- Diane lives outside of Philadelphia in an old house with garden beds largely left to their own devices. She has too many projects-in-process according to some, too many books according to many, and just the right number of sticky fingerprints from grandchildren.
The Story Behind the Author
When I was ten, I developed a habit of saying I had to go to the bathroom so that I could go to the library. The entrance to one was just past the door to the other, so I would casually stroll past the bathroom and just keep on walking. If there was no class visiting the library, I stayed. Once I found the section I was looking for that day—fact books or folktales, "red letter" books about holidays around the world, biographies, series or picture books—I sat down on the floor and one by one pulled a few books onto my lap for a thorough looking over. I never knew exactly what I would find, but I always found something. And that something occupied my thoughts the rest of the day, even when I went back to class after finally stopping by the bathroom.
That insatiable curiosity has led me through life along some interesting detours. It also turned me into a teacher and a writer. Both have proved to be handy excuses to keep learning and discovering and to connect with other curious people.
Why The Artist and His Museum?
In the summer of 2020, during a fit of internet sleuthing to soothe my pandemic-restricted soul, I discovered a little-known museum of huge importance, hidden just twenty miles from my front door on the upper levels of the most historically renowned building in Philadelphia. How had I never heard of it? Much of what I love about museums started there.
However, it wasn't until I learned about Moses Williams, the man enslaved by the museum's founder, Charles Willson Peale, that I fully understood the significance of what I'd tripped across. Now my first book brings that museum's story, and the story of Moses Williams, out of the shadows. Writing it required my favorite kind of research—endless hours digging in a bottomless pit of surprises that remind me over and over how much more there is to know about the world.Author Visits & Speaking
I have decades of experience teaching at every level, K-12, and I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from The Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. I am available for school visits, library and historical talks, literary events, and writing workshops. I still love to connect with curious people.
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