S.A. Harazin

Georgia Connections

• Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County

Notes of Interest

S.A. Harazin is the author of an acclaimed first novel, "Blood Brothers," which was nominated for a prestigious Edgar Award in the young adult book category. She lives in Atlanta. In 2010, her novel was chosen for inclusion on the Georgia Center for the Book's inaugural list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read."

Shirley Harazin was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, in 1952 and has lived in Florida, Alabama and now Georgia. At the age of 14, she began working as a nursing assistant at Heart of Florida Regional Hospital and continued there until her graduation from Haines City High School in 1970. Encouraged by her mother, an RN, to go to nursing school, she did and received her nursing degree from Samford University's Moffett School of Nursing in 1973. For the next 25 years she worked as a registered nurse before deciding to turn to writing in the late 1990s. Her first book, "Blood Brothers," was published in 2007. It is set in a hospital where 17-year-old Clay works, and focuses on the dilemma he confronts when one of his friends is admitted with a drug overdose for which Clay may be blamed. The author is now at work on her second novel for young adults.