Barbara Gregorich
Barbara Gregorich writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her novel She’s on First was called “the best book that’s written on the idea of the first woman to play professional baseball,” and her nonfiction title, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, won the SABR-Macmillan Award for Best Baseball Research of the Year. Barbara’s Chicago detective Frank Dragovic solves mysteries in Dirty Proof and Sound Proof. Midwest Book Review called her Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel: Lots of Examples, Plus Dead Bodies “an accessible primer for writers of all skill and experience levels.” Barbara's most recent book is one she has wanted to write since the age of sixteen: Charlie Chan's Poppa: Earl Derr Biggers.
Works

Charlie Chan's Poppa: Earl Derr Biggers
Although seldom given credit for it, Biggers was one of the first writers to help create mystery’s Golden Age on the American side of the Atlantic. His six Chan novels were serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, published by Bobbs-Merrill, and sought by Hollywood, and he received fan mail from thousands.
Wanting to know more about Earl Derr Biggers and how he came to write his mysteries, Gregorich researched the Bobbs-Merrill Archives at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. There she read all the correspondence between Biggers and his editor — correspondence which brings to life the author’s struggles to satisfy the Chan-hungry public.