Vivian Zabel taught English and writing for nearly thirty years, but she has written herself since a child. When she shared her goal of becoming an author with a friend in the seventh grade, the friend laughed. She didn’t share her desire with anyone again, but she worked to become an author. She and her late husband married in 1961 and had four children, three who lived. As an Air Force brat, she traveled from Guam to Morocco, and from Texas to Maine. But, Oklahoma was always home. Zabel has been a member of OWFI since 2002 and the OWFI Grant Director since 2012. She was honored as the Lifetime Member in 2013. She and a friend founded an OWFI affiliate, Pen and Keyboard Writers, in Edmond, Oklahoma. Her home was in Edmond from 1996 until 2021, when she moved to the country outside Hydro, Oklahoma. She started Invite to Write, another OWFI affiliate. Many of her books have won honors, including an international gold seal from Children's Literary Classics.