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Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Children’s book author Rebecca Dotlich was surprised, confused, and frightened when she was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 40. Optic nerve damage had already occurred, and even though eyedrops and laser were tried as options, surgery was necessary immediately to save her eyesight. “This,” she says, “was one of the hardest things to accept, because there was no proof (to me) that this disease existed; I had no pain, no discomfort, no signs.” Luckily, she went ahead with the surgery, and saved her eyesight.
Rebecca is now on eyedrops in the other eye, and her trab and bleb, after 15 years, are still working beautifully. She has her days; sometimes, she says, “there is a feeling of discomfort in my eye, like something is in it, and I have to squeeze that eye shut, or put a cold cloth on that eye, to alleviate some of that.” She takes brisk walks at least five times a week, and tries to stay upbeat about having a silent disease.
Thinking of the alternative, blindness, has convinced her to keep those eye appointments, and use those eyedrops, even though it isn’t always easy. “I notice that when I am under stress, my eyes seem worse.” A hint she gives is to “keep your head angled up, with extra pillows, etc., at night; and during the day, when I write, it seems to help to look at things straight on; if I look down too much, my eye will argue with me for hours!”
Poetry and Picture Books
Rebecca Kai Dotlich is a poet and picture book author whose work has been featured on Reading Rainbow, has appeared in magazines such as Ladybug and Highlights, and in numerous anthologies, textbooks and collections. She has been a poetry advisor and contributing columnist for Creative Classroom magazine, and Teaching K-8, gives poetry workshops, including Highlights Founders workshops in Pennsylvania, and speaks at national conferences, writer retreats, libraries and schools to teachers, aspiring writers and students of all ages.
Dotlich’s books have been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection, 10 Best Books for Babies, IRA Children’s Choice, Indiana Best Read Aloud, and the Gold Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award. Her feisty terrier, Skippy Biscuit, stood guard for 17 years. She doesn’t live in a rambling old farmhouse or in a cottage by the sea, but she is able to barely see a stream from her writing room window that meanders outside of her backyard. She has two grown children, and two small grandchildren. She lives in Indiana.
Rebecca’s website is www.rebeccakaidotlich.com