Get to know author Alexandra Dean ’07 Hinrichs
An unusual local news story aired in Maine, in July 2021. It told the tale of Virginia Oliver, a native Mainer with curly gray hair, red lipstick, and a twinkle in her eye. At 101, she was the oldest lobster trapper in the state and had no plans to retire from the open sea.
One of the many viewers of the documentary special was Alexandra Dean ’07 Hinrichs, a children’s book author always hungry for a new idea. Immediately struck with inspiration, Hinrichs tracked down Oliver’s phone number and dialed. “I met her the very next day and we sat down for four hours,” Hinrichs recalls.
That conversation evolved into The Lobster Lady (Charlesbridge, 2023), which covers Oliver’s 93 years spent lobster trapping, mixed with anecdotes about her life growing up on her family’s island off the coast of Maine. Hinrichs serendipitously stumbled upon a Maine illustrator, Jamie Hogan, while scrolling through Instagram during the book’s development. They combined forces to create a book through which children ages 5–8 can learn the determination and passion it takes to catch crustaceans as a centenarian.
The Lobster Lady’s summer release date isn’t the only item on Hinrichs’ agenda — it’s one of three books the Colgate French/history major is releasing this year. I Am Made of Mountains (Charlesbridge, 2023) is a lyrical picture book exploring America’s National Parks, and The Pocket Book (Cameron Kids, 2023) details the little stories of the items we put in our pockets day-to-day. This recent uptick in book publishing is in part due to COVID-19 delays, and in part because Hinrichs has dedicated more of her time to writing in recent years (she spends her days as a children’s librarian).
Hinrichs’ journey to becoming a children’s book author began at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While earning her dual master’s degrees in library and information studies and history, she took children’s literature courses and studied the history of childhood. She’d always had an interest in writing for children, but didn’t know how to make it happen. That is, until she took a part-time job at American Girl as a historical researcher. “That really taught me about the children’s publishing world because I was seeing books go from an outline form through to a published book, and I was working with editors and art directors and authors and illustrators,” Hinrichs says.
When she moved to Maine for her husband’s (Brian ’07) new role as the executive director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Hinrichs’ American Girl supervisor connected her with an editor at the Getty Museum, who commissioned her to write her first book, Thérèse Makes a Tapestry (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016).
“It was a lot of work and there were a lot of obstacles along the way,” Hinrichs says of forging her path to children’s book writing. Even today she searches for pockets of time to write outside of her full-time job — though she’ll have a bit extra during an upcoming, yearlong leave of absence from the library.
But as Oliver has with lobster catching, Hinrichs has found her life’s work: creating imaginative worlds for children to experience through her books.