Voigt, Cynthia << voyt, SIHN thee uh >> (1942-…), is an American author of novels for children and young adults. Much of Voigt’s fiction deals with such serious subjects as sexual abuse, racial prejudice, gay relationships, and mental illness. Critics have praised Voigt as a powerful storyteller who creates sympathetic but realistic characters.
Voigt received the 1983 Newbery Medal for Dicey’s Song (1982). The Newbery Medal is awarded annually for the best children’s book by an American author. Dicey’s Song is the second in a series of books about the Tillerman family. Dicey Tillerman is a 13-year-old girl and the oldest of four fatherless children. She assumes responsibility for the other children after their mentally ill mother abandons them in a parking lot in Connecticut. The four walk to Maryland in search of their grandmother. The Tillerman series explores problems of death, poverty, and separation.
Voigt portrays three female first-year college students who become close friends in Tell Me If the Lovers Are Losers (1982). She wrote a mystery story called The Callender Papers (1983) and a science-fiction story called Building Blocks (1984). Voigt creates a teenage girl who must face life after losing a leg in an automobile accident in the realistic novel Izzy, Willy-Nilly (1986). David and Jonathan (1992) is set in the 1950’s and touches on such themes as anti-Semitism and gay attraction. Voigt has written several fantasy novels set during the Middle Ages, the period of European history from about the 400’s through the 1400’s. They consist of Jackaroo (1985), On Fortune’s Wheel (1990), The Wings of a Falcon (1993), and Elske (1999). She describes the friendship of two rebellious schoolgirls named Mikey and Margalo in a series of novels beginning with The Bad Girls (1996). With Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things (2013), Voigt began a series of mystery stories about an 11-year-old English boy living in the late 1800’s. She has written several animal stories for young readers, including Angus and Sadie (2005), Young Fredle (2011), and Toaff’s Way (2018).
Voigt was born on Feb. 25, 1942, in Boston. Her maiden name was Cynthia Irving. She graduated from Smith College with an A.B. degree in 1963. From 1968 to 1988, she taught high school English at a private school in Annapolis, Maryland. She eventually became chair of the English department there. She married Walter Voigt, a teacher at the school, in 1974.
