Kimberly Colen was a children's book author for the Scholastic book company

Scholastic Press

Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...

. She wrote many books, including My Hanukkah Book, My Birthday Book, and Our Class Memory Album. She also edited the frequent graduation gift Hold Fast Your Dreams, a collection of twenty commencement speech

Commencement speech

A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions. The "commencement" is a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred upon graduating students...

es. Colen died in 2001 of complications from skin cancer

Skin cancer

Skin neoplasms are skin growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy. The three most common malignant skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises...

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The Kimberly Colen Memorial Grant was given annually in her honor by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is a nonprofit, 5013 organization that acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people.The...

and her family, to one or two promising children's author looking to get their first book published.