Fast Facts About Irene
Irene is the middle child and first daughter of five kids.

Irene has lived all sorts of places and traveled worldwide. For the past 26 years she has called Birmingham, Alabama, home.

She thinks growing up with three brothers was great preparation for raising her three sons. She also thinks getting a sister was one of the best things that has ever happened to her.
(To read more about Irene's sister, click here)

Irene is proud to be the only leftie in her family of origin AND in her current family.

According to Irene's Dr. Seuss' MY BOOK ABOUT ME, she has wanted to be writer since she was eight years old.

She also wanted to train a horse that her sister would ride to victory in the Kentucky Derby. That hasn't happened. Yet.

Irene didn't take a single writing course in college.

In 2000 Irene pulled her poems and stories out of drawers and began to pursue publication of her work. Since then she has published over 170 poems.

Irene's favorite characters in book and real life are those who go their own way.

Irene is especially excited about bringing her poetry to the children's market. She just sold her first poem to Scholastic's Storyworks magazine! She's also thrilled to be working with Roaring Brook/Macmillan on her contemporary midgrade novel DON'T FEED THE BOY, about the son of a zoo director mom and elephant keeper dad who struggles to escape the confines of zoo life. Look for it (with illustrations!) in 2012.

» "Official" Biography

The Dykes Family in Thailand.
Irene is the one holding the yellow umbrella.


Little Irene living a life worth writing about.