‘Trailblazer’ Danbury educator weaves science into her books
DANBURY — Kristin Ward recalls the comment her seventhgrade English teacher wrote on her essay, comparing her writing style to Saki, the author of the short story they had just read.
“I remember it being the turning point for me, where I took in that feedback and just her belief that I had some kind of innate talent with the written word and I started to channel that,” said Ward, a Newtown resident and awardwinning author.
Now, Ward is an educator and has self-published three young adult novels. She is working on a novella series to be published this year.
As a K-5 STEM coach for Danbury Public Schools, she uses her creativity and writing skills to craft curriculum and lessons for science, technology, engineering and math. In her novels, she weaves in her passion for science and environment into her plot and themes.
“I know it might not be typical to have the nerdy math and science with the literary, but it’s just always been part of who I am,” said Ward, who has worked for Danbury schools for about 10 years.
She will discuss her most recent novel, “The Rise of Gaia,” over Zoom at 7 p.m. Wednesday through a program with C.H. Booth Library in Newtown.
She has spoken to Danbury students about writing and her boss reached out this week to a humanities administrator to see if Ward’s books could be considered as part of the curriculum.
Laura Mead, the K-5 mathematics supervisor in Danbury, described Ward as a leader in the department. Ward has been instrumental in crafting a curriculum that is integrated between disciplines because she has strong skills in science and writing, her boss said.
“She is just a wealth of information, just an unbelievable resource,” Ward said. “While her writing is her passion and she’s a phenomenal writer, she’s just as phenomenal of an educator.”
Ward has especially been key during the coronavirus pandemic, when she and her colleagues have written lessons for the teachers,
Mead said. Ward has inspired her colleagues to conduct more research for the lessons.
“She really has been a trailblazer in Danbury in doing this,” Mead said.
Ward said she has gotten good feedback from students and teachers on the lessons she has created during the pandemic. For example, after Ward sent out a link to a shark-tracking website, one student has given her class weekly updates.
“It’s that kind of thing where if I just reach one person with my books or if I just reach one person through something I’m creating in my career, then it’s all worth it,” Ward said.
She also works as a contract consultant for Highlights on their math and STEAM — or science, technology, engineering, art and math — workbooks.
As a teen, she said she wrote “terrible, angst-ridden” poems and later short stories. She started working on her first novel in her 20s, but has since scrapped the idea.
“It’s something I didn’t actually follow up with because I kind of got bored with it,” Ward said. “I’m a great story-starter. It’s following up and finishing it that I sometimes have a problem with.”
She has juggled writing with her career and raising her three sons. Her target is to write 500 words daily.
In 2017, she read an article that said Cape Town, South Africa, would run out of water in 2018. She felt like she was reading part of the prologue of her novel.
“This is not science fiction,” Ward said. “This is not some dystopian world. This is something I saw.”
That pushed her to finish the novel in an effort to raise awareness for issues like the environment. She opted to self-publish, so her manuscript could get out to the world quickly.
“I needed to get it published because what was happening in the news globally resonate so well with the book itself,” Ward said.
Like her first two dystopian novels, the environment is a prominent theme in “The Rise of Gaia” as Ward explores what it would be
like if the earth were sentient, she said. But this novel incorporates more fantasy and mythological elements.
“How I’m writing that character is really based on our current situation and what we’re currently doing environmentally, and not just in this country, but globally, as a species,” Ward said.
Her first novel won the 2018 Best Indie Book Award in Young Adult Fiction and the 2020 Connecticut Author Project in Young Adult Fiction, while her second novel was named the 2019 TopShelf Indie Book Award Finalist in Young Adult Fiction.
As an educator, Ward hopes to encourage students to pursue math and science. She’s still in touch with the teacher who inspired her.
“What she did for me was creating a positive, self-fulfilling prophecy,” Ward said.