Christopher Paul Curtis
Windsor Public Library is privileged that prominent international children's
author Christopher Paul Curtis calls Windsor his home—and Windsor
Public Library his base.
Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan and worked for 13 years as an autoworker in the Fisher Body Plant. In his spare time, he wrote fiction and attended classes at the University of Michigan. While still attending university, Curtis won the Avery Hopwood Prize for major essays.
Following a move to Windsor, Curtis began his association with the Windsor Public Library when he wrote his first best-seller, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, in longhand, at Central Library. Published in 1995, the book went on to receive a long list of acknowledgements and praise.
Curtis'
second book, Bud, Not Buddy, about
a Depression-era boy looking for his father, was published in 1999. Like
the first, this book was written in longhand, partially at the Windsor
Public Library. This novel was awarded both the 2000 Newbery Medal by the
American Library Association and the Coretta Scott King Award by the Coretta
Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities
Round Table.
Curtis's writing has been greatly influenced by his family members, particularly his wife, Kaysandra. Also, with grandfathers like Earl "Lefty" Lewis, a Negro Baseball League pitcher, and 1930s bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr. of Herman Curtis and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, it is easy to see why Christopher Paul Curtis was destined to become an entertainer.
Christopher
Paul Curtis is exceptional because his perseverance in exercising his extraordinary
talent in ordinary circumstances has made him an author renowned in North
America, and yet he remains available to and vitally interested in the
people of Windsor and of Flint. He shares their origins, heritage and perceptions
and yet has demonstrated that immense individual achievement is also possible.
Curtis can still be found, and approached, in the stacks of the Windsor Public Library to talk about art or social events. A call to his home can arrange an appearance to promote accessible library services. Christopher Paul Curtis remains true to his grass roots while achieving at an international level.
The author's impact on the arts and Windsor as an interpreter of life
in a racially mixed, automotive industry community is a catalyst for discussion
among the artistic and Afro-Canadian communities, and as an exemplar for
youth. His high-profile—but humane—personality continues
to receive well-deserved public recognition.