The noted author Alice Hoffman wanted to give something to the low-income women and girls of New York City after 9/11. Believing in the vital work being done by The New York Women's Foundation to bring economic security to this underserved group, Hoffman decided to donate the advance received for her new book Green Angel. The funding will underwrite a 2003 New York Women's Foundation "Green Angel Grant" for a city-based girls' program.

Hoffman is the author of over a dozen acclaimed and best-selling novels that have been published in more than twenty languages, including Illumination Night; At Risk; Turtle Moon; Practical Magic, which was also released as a major motion picture; Hear on Earth, an Oprah's Book Club selection; and, most recently, Blue Diary.

Hoffman needed a way to express her feelings of grief and loss following 9/11. A prolific writer, she turned to that same medium to give voice to her feelings. The young-adult novel she wrote focuses on Green, a fifteen-year-old girl left on her own after a terrible disaster. Haunted by loss and the past, Green struggles to survive physically and emotionally in a ravaged landscape where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere. Through Green's rebirth, Hoffman offers teenage readers a beautiful novel full of healing and hope. Green Angel is being published by Scholastic Press and will arrive in bookstores in April. The book has already been selected by booksellers for their top ten teen readers' Book Sense 76 list.

Hoffman hopes that the Green Angel Grant will inspire others to support women's funding. The New York Women's Foundation is grateful to Alice Hoffman for her creative philanthropy and for her generous gift.

Visit Amazon.com through our website www.nywf.org to buy any of Alice Hoffman's books and a portion of your purchase price will support the work of the NYWF.