Hope Lourie Killcoyne

Hope Lourie Killcoyne was born in South Miami, Florida, traveling north to New York with her mother five years later when her parents divorced. Mother and daughter's first stop in New York was Long Island, where the two stayed with wonderfully welcoming family. Always a fan of writing, reading, and photography, the first poem Hope wrote was at the age of six, when her mother began dating in hopes of marrying again:

When you're not here, when you're not here, my eyes do tear.

Someone will come in, kiss me goodnight, walk out of the room, and turn off the light.

Two things:

1. The light would be turned off AFTER someone had left the room?

2. Aren't Jewish mothers supposed to dispense guilt, not the daughters?

Killcoyne went on to write and produce for TV (NBC Network News and then WNET/PBS [where she won several writing awards]); switched to children's publishing as an author, editor, and photographer; and is now a nascent web developer.