Jewel Kats
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| Born | Michelle Meera Katyal (1978-10-24)October 24, 1978 Toronto |
| Died | January 7, 2016(2016-01-07) (aged 37) Toronto |
| Period | 2010-16 |
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Michelle Meera Katyal (November 24, 1978 – January 7, 2016) was a Canadian children's author who wrote under the pen name Jewel Kats. Katyal wrote over ten books and was the inspiration for Dan Parent to create the first Archie Comics character with a disability in 2014.
When Katyal was nine years old, she broke her leg in a car accident and resulted in having to using a wheelchair for transportation. After graduating from Milliken Mills High School, she went to the University of Toronto Mississauga and George Brown College for post-secondary studies.[1]
Katyal began her career as an advice columnist for six years and obtained a scholarship from Harlequin Enterprises. After the divorce of her first husband, Katyal became a children's author.[2]
After publishing her first book titled Reena's Bollywood Dream: A Story of Sexual Abuse, Katyal began an eight-book series named Fairy Ability Tales which reinterpreted fairy tales to include characters with disabilities.[3] In 2016, Katyal's final two books Jenny & Her Dog Both Fight Cancer: A Tale of Chemotherapy and Caring and Prince Preemie were posthumously published by Loving Healing Press.[4]
Katal died on January 7, 2016, from surgical complications.[1]
Katyal was married to her first husband in 1998 and divorced in 2008. She married her second husband in 2013 and remained married until her death.[1]
After meeting Archie Comics artist Dan Parent, Katyal was the basis for the first Archie character to have a disability in 2014.[5] The following year, Katyal took part in the 2015 Pan American Games opening ceremony.[6]
In 2017, Loving Healing Press created the Jewel Kats Special Needs Award to honor the memory of Jewel Kats.[citation needed] The contest is administered by Reader Views and entrants must submit books that features a story about a child overcoming a mental or physical disability.[7]
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