Pamela S. Turner

Biography

Pamela S Turner
Pamela

My Background

The first thing I can remem­ber want­i­ng to be is a chil­dren’s author. I also loved ani­mals. We had a dog and a big out­door cage full of doves. My good friend, Jen­ny, lived on a dairy farm and it was crit­ter heav­en for me. We would jump her hors­es bare­back over bales of hay and ride for miles in the hills.

When I was in col­lege I spent a year in Nairo­bi, Kenya, as an exchange stu­dent. I did­n’t know much about Africa before I left, but I knew it had lots of wildlife. I trav­eled through­out East and Cen­tral Africa and saw lions, ele­phants, goril­las, Cape buf­fa­lo, and many oth­er ani­mals. I met my future hus­band, Rob, in Kenya. He was also an exchange stu­dent. We both loved liv­ing in East Africa.

I have a B.A. in Social Sci­ence from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine, and a Mas­ter of Pub­lic Health from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley. I’ve worked as a leg­isla­tive assis­tant for for­eign affairs for a Cal­i­for­nia con­gress­man and as an inter­na­tion­al health con­sul­tant. Over the years Rob and I lived in Kenya, the Mar­shall Islands, South Africa, the Philip­pines, and Japan. We have three chil­dren, Travis, Kelsey, and Con­nor. Each child was born in a dif­fer­ent coun­try. Our grand­son, Shep­herd, is a native San Franciscan.

How I Started Writing

My fam­i­ly and I lived in Japan for about six years, and my chil­dren all attend­ed a local Japan­ese preschool. The Japan­ese moth­ers at the preschool told me the sto­ry of Hachiko. I thought it was a won­der­ful tale. When we returned to the U.S., I decid­ed I want­ed to be a writer, just like I’d planned to be when I was four. (Bet­ter late than nev­er.) Hachiko is famous in Japan, and I thought his sto­ry would be a won­der­ful one to share with Eng­lish-speak­ing chil­dren. Hachiko was my first book. Since then I’ve writ­ten Goril­la Doc­tors, Life on Earth—and Beyond, A Life in the Wild, The Frog Sci­en­tist, Prowl­ing the Seas, Project Sea­horse, The Dol­phins of Shark Bay, Samu­rai Ris­ing, Crow Smarts, and How to Build a Human.

On the Home Front

My hus­band and I split our time between Oak­land, Cal­i­for­nia, New­berg, Ore­gon, and Tokyo, Japan. Besides read­ing and writ­ing, I love to scu­ba dive, snow ski, and prac­tice kendo (Japan­ese sword­fight­ing). I also vol­un­teer as a wildlife reha­bil­i­ta­tor at the Lind­say Wildlife Hos­pi­tal in Wal­nut Creek, CA, where I spe­cial­ize in rais­ing orphaned crows and  ravens. While writ­ing, I’m kept com­pa­ny by my dog  Manchee (who is named after the dog in Patrick Ness’s nov­el The Knife of Nev­er Let­ting Go). 

Pamela S Turner
Pamela
Manchee
Manchee
Kendo
Pamela (on left) par­tic­i­pat­ing in a kendo tournament

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