Children’s Writers at the University of Connecticut
Fall 2008

Have you ever thought about becoming a writer for young people?  Would you like to find out more about writing as a career?  Have you written creatively for children?  Would you like to get feedback from an established author on a short manuscript?  Would you just like to spend a half-hour talking with a children’s writer about the creative process?

Here is your opportunity!  The English Department is bringing three published children’s writers to campus in March and April.  The writers would love to meet with individual students.

Please contact Kate Capshaw Smith in the English Department to schedule a meeting with a writer.  Kate’s email address is capshaw@uconn.edu.

Writers are available at the following times:

Master Class on Writing and Illustrating for Children
Friday, October 10th, 2008
11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Class of 1947 Room, Dodd Center
Sponsored by the Rightors Fund for Children’s Literature

Do you want to learn how to write for children?  Here is a fantastic opportunity to spend an afternoon with some of the most important author/illustrators working today.  Confirmed presenters include Chris Raschka (Caldecott Award), Javaka Steptoe (Coretta Scott King Award), Allison Paul, and Rudy Gutierrez (ALA Notable Book).   This is not a lecture series. You will have the opportunity to interact with the writers/illustrators in a workshop setting.  Fifteen seats are available for student creative writers.  You must pre-register in order to attend.  There are no fees associated with the Master Class.  For more information, please contact Kate Capshaw Smith at Capshaw@uconn.edu.

Leonard S. Marcus, “Wonder in the Wake of War: The Fantasy Tradition in American Children’s Literature”
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center

The talk, based on the fantasy-literature dimensions of his latest book, Minders of Make-Believe, will be held in Konover Auditorium with a reception and book signing to follow.  Published by Houghton Mifflin in 2008, Marcus’s Minders of Make-Believe is “. . . an animated first-time history of the visionaries - editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others - whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture.”  Writing about the relationship between fantasy literature and the experience of war, Marcus explains, “So many of the fantasy writers I interviewed . . . felt they were writing about the war they themselves had experienced, or else that they wrote fantasy because of the impact of remembered wars on their view of life. And it seems me that it was the experience of modern warfare, which so discredited the myth of science- and industry-driven progress, which helped to consolidate the readership for writers from Tolkien and Lewis to Madeleine L'Engle.”

Leonard Marcus is one the field’s most respected authors and speakers.  His recent children’s books include Oscar: The Big Adventure of a Little Sock Monkey, co-authored and illustrated by his wife Amy Schwartz, and Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark.  Marcus also writes as a historian of the genre and has published books on Margaret Wise Brown, Ursula Nordstrom, and Golden Books. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers' Workshop.  In 2007, Leonard was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education.

This talk is a presentation of the Northeast Children's Literature Collection in conjunction with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and is free and open to the public.  For more information contact Terri J. Goldich at 860.486.3646 or terri.goldich@uconn.edu. 

M. T. Anderson
Tuesday, October 28
Konover Auditorium, 7 pm
Co-sponsored by The Rightors Fund for Children’s Literature, the Creative Writing Program, and Teachers for a New Era

M.T. Anderson is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which won a 2006 National Book Award, and Feed, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Feed is “satire at its finest” remarked Kirkus Reviews, and, according to The New York Times Book Review, serves as proof that “young-adult novels are alive and well and able to deliver a jolt.” 

Previous semesters writers:

Pegi Deitz Shea: Wednesday, March 26th
Half-hour appointments available from 3:30-4:30 and 5:30-6:30.

Pegi Deitz Shea is the author of Tangled Threads (2003), the winner of the Connecticut Book Award for Children’s Literature.  She has published more than 250 articles, essays, and poems for adults and children.  Her latest books include The Boy and the Spell (2007) and Patience Wright, America’s First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy (2007).

Janet Lawler: Monday, April 7th
Half hour appointments available from1:00-3:00.

An author immersed in poetry for children, Janet Lawler is best known for her marvelous picture books, including A Father’s Song (2006), A Mama Bug’s Love (2006) and the acclaimed If Kisses Were Colors (2003).

Laura E. Williams, Wednesday, April 9th
Half-hour appointments available from 3:30-4:30 and 5:30-6:30.

Laura E. Williams has published picture books, series fiction, middle-grade fiction, and non-fiction.  Among her many publications is the novel Behind a Bedroom Wall (1996), which is currently being developed as a musical.  Her vivid novel, The Executioner’s Daughter, just appeared in paperback.

This is an exciting opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with a published children’s writer!  All meetings will take place in the CLAS building.  Please email capshaw@uconn.edu soon to schedule your meeting.

Also in April:
Tuesday, April 22nd: Raouf Mama
CLAS 217, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
 “From the Storyteller’s Mouth, Onto the Printed Page, and Into the Ears of Children: A Storyteller’s Creative Adventure”

Raouf Mama is an internationally known bilingual storyteller, the only one in the world today who performs in English and French indigenous tales from his native Benin, a French-speaking country in West Africa. Drawn from one of the richest oral traditions in Africa, Mama’s stories have strong connections to African cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. His first book, Why Goats Smell Bad and Other Stories from Benin, was published in February 1998 to critical acclaim. Kirkus Reviews described it as “a wide-ranging collection from an understudied tradition.” Booklist praised it as “a rich, varied source of lively tales for children and storytellers to enjoy;” and The School Library Journal hailed it as “a fascinating collection of 20 traditional folktales that make the Fon culture come alive… an important contribution to folklore scholarship.” Why Goats Smell Bad and Other Stories From Benin has won a Storytelling World award for the story: “How Hare Drank Boiling Water and Married the Beautiful Princess.”

All presentations are funded through the generous support of the Rightors Fund.