Carol Plum-Ucci

Carol Plum-Ucci (born August 16, 1957 in [Atlantic City, New Jersey]) is a young adult novelist and essayist. Plum-Ucci’s most famous work to date is (The Body of Christopher Creed, for which she won a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award in 2002 and was named a Finalist to the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Describing her subjects as "the most common, timeless, and most heart-felt teenagers," Plum-Ucci is widely recognized for her use of the South Jersey shore to set scenes for engaging characters embracing suspense themes.

Early life

Plum-Ucci grew up on the barrier island of Brigantine, where she attended the public schools until the age of thirteen. She then went to Atlantic City Friends’ School, where her grandmother, Neva Ingersoll, taught advanced high school mathematics. She graduated from Holy Spirit High School in 1975. Her father, Neil Plum, and her paternal grandmother, Ads Plum, partnered in the funeral business, owning Plum Funeral Homes in Brigantine, Atlantic City, and Ventnor. Plum-Ucci largely attributes her writer’s imagination to lying awake at night in the family abode, above the Brigantine funeral parlor, listening for sounds of life from down the stairs.

She received her bachelor’s in communication from Purdue University in 1979. She served as feature editor of the Purdue Exponent, a two-year post, and it is there, she says, that she ‘became a writer.’ After Purdue, Plum-Ucci was a freelance writer in the Chicago area for several years. She became Assistant to the Producer of the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City in 1984. She later served as Staff Writer and Director of Publications of the Miss America Organization and Miss America Scholarship Foundation, producing up to a dozen publications a year for volunteers and participants. Plum-Ucci retired in 1999, two months after receiving her first advance on royalties from The Body of Christopher Creed from Harcourt—the first novel she sold and the fifth she had written.

Plum-Ucci’s mother, Ellen Plum, was the first woman president of the Miss America Organization, and her paternal grandmother was a volunteer. As a South Jersey history buff, Plum-Ucci enjoyed the association as a third-generation participant.

Career

Plum-Ucci’s work utterly reflects her roots as a South Jersey islander. The Body of Christopher Creed was set in the Pine Barrens, siding up to the South Jersey back bays that conjoin the mainland to the barrier islands. What Happened to Lani Garver, The She, and The Night My Sister Went Missing all take place on barrier islands, which Plum-Ucci confesses are derivatives of her home base, Brigantine. Streams of Babel takes place in a mainland town behind Atlantic City. Because the book has to do with a terrorist attack and residents balked when they heard their town’s name associated with such a memorable yet terrifying concept, Plum-Ucci changed its name to the fictional Trinity Falls. With both The She and What Happened to Lani Garver, Plum-Ucci tried to set the tales in other places, namely Philadelphia and Centralia, Pennsylvania, respectively, and they simply wouldn’t move forward. When she changed the setting to the barrier islands, with which she was so familiar, they suddenly came alive, she said. What Happened to Lani Garver was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association and was an Editor’s 1 Choice for Young Adult Literature on Amazon.

Her inspiration for The Night My Sister Went Missing was an abandoned pier that used to sit on the 38th Street beach in Brigantine, when Plum-Ucci was a teenage beach tag inspector in the late 1970s. ‘I used to stand under those rotted-out pilings, look up at the rotted out boards and think what a gas it would be to be able to go up there and party with my friends,’ she said. The Night My Sister Went Missing features that pier—now under the sand after much beach protection efforts—with a party of teens, a lot of clowning around—and a small gun.

By late 2008, Plum-Ucci had received seven citations from YALSA, the young adult division of the American Library Association, including Quik Piks for Reluctant Readers (The Night My Sister Went Missing), Most Popular Paperback List (What Happened to Lani Garver and The Body of Christopher Creed, Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults What Happened to Lani Garver, Best Books for Young Adults (What Happened to Lani Garver and The Body of Christopher Creed, nomination of The She), and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award The Body of Christopher Creed, and nomination of What Happened to Lani Garver.

Plum-Ucci has two children and three step children and currently lives in Southern New Jersey, with her husband, Rick.

Quotations

Things don’t have to be sane when they’re normal. (Torey Adams, The Body of Christopher Creed)

Life either makes no sense or is as boring as hell. (Tyler Ping, Streams of Babel)

Literary works

Harcourt novels

• (2000) The Body of Christopher Creed
• (2002) What Happened to Lani Garver
• (2003) The She
• (2006) The Night My Sister Went Missing
• (2008) Streams of Babel

External links

Amazon Links to her five major novels: http://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Garver-Carol-Plum-Ucci/dp/0152050884/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215318837&sr=8-3 http://www.amazon.com/Body-Christopher-Creed-Carol-Plum-ucci/dp/0786816414/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215318837&sr=8-5 http://www.amazon.com/She-Carol-Plum-Ucci/dp/0152168192/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215318837&sr=8-4 http://www.amazon.com/Night-My-Sister-Went-Missing/dp/0152047581/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215318837&sr=8-6 http://www.amazon.com/Streams-Babel-Carol-Plum-Ucci/dp/0152165568/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215319244&sr=8-1 Teen Reads about Plum-Ucci’s Streams of Babel: http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/9780152165567.asp Carol Plum-Ucci’s Web Site: www.carolplumucci.com

Category: 1957 births Category: Living people Category: American novelists Category: Young adult novelists Category: American essayists Category: American children's writers Category: Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award Category: Edgar Allan Poe Award Category: Purdue University Graduates Category: American Library Association Category: Young Adult Literary Service Association Category: Suspense Writers Category: New Jersey Writers Category: Book One New Jersey Winners de:Carol Plum-Ucci es: Carol Plum-Ucci eo: Carol Plum-Ucci fr: Carol Plum-Ucci it: Carol Plum-Ucci nl: Carol Plum-Ucci pl: Carol Plum-Ucci pt: Carol Plum-Ucci sk: Carol Plum-Ucci sh: Carol Plum-Ucci fi: Carol Plum-Ucci sv: Carol Plum-Ucci tr: Carol Plum-Ucci