Spotlight On: Patricia Nikolina Clark

Patricia Nikolina Clark has a passion for prehistory. It stems from a longing to go back to a simpler time as well as a longing to know what our ancient ancestors knew about living close to nature. But there are no time machines in this life, except in our minds. Clark imagined what daily life must have been like for the hunters and gatherers of the Ice Age, based on archaeological evidence and current research. She had the good fortune to attend an excavation of Clovis artifacts near her home in Washington State, where she held a stone point once held by a Clovis hunter 12,000 years ago. After that experience, the story idea came to her for In the Shadow of the Mammoth. “There is great power in artifacts,” says Clark.

Ms. Clark’s short stories and articles have appeared in children’s magazines for many years. This is her first novel for middle-grade readers.