Blind (29 page)

Rachel DeWoskin
spent her twenties in China as the unlikely star of a nighttime soap opera, an experience that inspired her memoir,
Foreign Babes in Beijing
. She has written two novels,
Repeat After Me
, about a young Chinese dissident who marries his English language teacher in New York City; and
Big Girl Small
, the coming-of-age story of a sixteen-year-old with dwarfism.
Big Girl Small
received the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and Rachel’s conversations with young readers made her want to write her first YA novel.
Blind
is that book; while writing it, Rachel learned braille at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and was dazzled by the grit and generosity of the visually impaired and blind friends who shared their stories. Rachel lives in Chicago and Beijing with her husband, playwright Zayd Dohrn, and their two little girls.

Visit her at
racheldewoskin.com
.