October 12 to 14, 2001
Alma Flor Ada
Alma Flor Ada is Professor Emerita at USF, founder and first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the National Assoc. for Bilingual Education (NABE), and award winning author of books for children and adolescents, writes in a variety of genres. Her memoir Under the Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba earned the Pura Belpré Award. My Name is Maria Isabel was a NCSS/CBC Notable Book and ABA "Pick of the Lists" and the Hidden Forest book, Dear Peter Rabbit, won the Parents' Choice Award. Her books for teachers include A Magical Encounter and Authors In the Classroom: Transformative Education for Teachers, Students, and Families. New releases are Pio Peep, I Love Saturdays y domingos and Mamá Goose, A Latino Nursery Treasury. Website: www.almaflorada.com
Theresa Breslin
Theresa Breslin is an award-winning Scottish librarian and writer with a special interest in children's literature. She was born in a small town in the middle of Scotland close to castles, old burial grounds and the Roman Wall. Her writing is informed by Scotland's history and culture both present and past, and appeals to all ages and interests. Traveling on a mobile library through Central Scotland led her to write her first book Simon's Challenge which won the British Book Trust Fidler Award for new writers. She has been described as an outstanding writer, who creates memorable characters, combining a powerful sense of drama with superb storytelling. Her books appear regularly on children's book award shortlists, are in translation in a number of languages, and have been dramatized on television and radio. Whispers in the Graveyard, her compelling tale of a dyslexic boy's search for fulfillment, won the Carnegie Gold Medal, the U.K.'s most prestigious children's book award. She is a member of the Board of Scottish Book Trust and serves on the Advisory Committee for Public Lending Right in the U.K. She was awarded lifelong Honorary Membership by the Scottish Library Association for distinguished services to Children's Literature and Librarianship in 2000. Website: www.theresabreslin.co.uk
Carmen Diana Dearden
Carmen Diana Dearden is the author of Sapo en Invierno (Frog in the Winter). Ms. Deardon promotes Ediciones Ekaré, a non-profit publishing house based in Venezuela, which publishes quality books in Spanish for children and young people from all over the world. The name of the company was borrowed from the Pemón ethnic group, located in southwestern Venezuela. Ekaré means new or true narrations, and in its broader context, stories or legends. Founded in 1978 in affiliation with Banco del Libro, a world renowned institution for the promotion of children's literature, Ediciones Ekaré is considered a pioneer in the field of children's book publishing in Latin America.
Nancy Farmer
Nancy Farmer is the highly acclaimed author of The Ear, The Eye and The Arm, and A Girl Named Disaster, both Newbery award-winning novels. She was raised in Arizona, has been an entomologist, has traveled widely in Africa where she lived for many years, and presently lives in Menlo Park, California, where she continues to write picture books and novels for young people. Website: www.nancyfarmerwebsite.com
Carolivia Herron
Carolivia Herron’s book Nappy Hair is the story of a young African American expressing delight in the texture of her hair. The book was considered controversial when read aloud in a New York public school. Dr. Carolivia Herron lives in Washington, D.C. where she is writing fiction, developing multimedia online educational products, establishing writing clubs in Washington, D.C. public schools, and teaching African American Literature, Comparative Epic Tradition (Europe, Africa, and the Americas), and Jewish Africana. Dr. Herron has spent most of her professorial career at Harvard as professor and as a Visiting Scholar. She has also held appointments at Mount Holyoke College and California State University, Chico. She has been a visiting scholar at Brandeis University, Hebrew College of Brookline, Carlton College, the Marien N’Guabi University of Congo, Brazzaville, and several universities in the Republic of Congo. Her fellowships include: Fulbright Fellowship to Mexico, Bunting Fellow of Radcliffe College, Beinecke Fellowship to Yale, Folger Shakespeare Library Scholarship, NEH Fellowship in Curriculum Development in African American Studies, NEH Visit to Collections Fellowship and Smithsonian Fellowship in Art History. Dr. Herron holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Website: www.carolivia.org
Thacher Hurd
Thatcher Hurd was born in Burlington, Vermont and grew up in the world of children's books. His father, Clement Hurd, was the illustrator of Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon and his mother was the children's writer Edith Thacher Hurd. Authors and illustrators were constant visitors in Thacher's childhood home. He attended art school, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and the California college of Arts and Crafts. He is the author/illustrator of Mystery on the Docks, (1983), Mama Don't Allow (1984), which received the Boston globe-Horn Book award for illustration, The Pea Patch Jig (1995), Blackberry Ramble (1995), Art Dog (1996), Santa Mouse and the Ratdeer (1998) and Zoom City (1998), a New York Times Best illustrated book of the Year. He is co-owner of Peaceable Kingdom Press with his wife Olivia. Mystery on the Docks has been adapted for television on Reading Rainbow as has Mama Don't Allow which has also been featured on CBS storybreak and as an opera for children by the Los Angeles City Opera. Website: www.thacherhurd.com
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Virginia Euwer Wolff is author of Make Lemonade (1993), Bat Six, (1998), Probably A Still Nick Swanson (1998), and The Mozart Season (1991). Her Young Adult books head up the best books lists as awarded by the International Reading Association, the American Library Association, School Library Journal and booklist. She is a former teacher, a violinist, and a native of Oregon. She majored in English at Smith college, taught elementary school in Philadelphia and Long Island, then returned to Oregon to teach high school English. Her newest book is True Believer (2001), a sequel to Make Lemonade which further explores the story of LaVaughn. Virginia is a featured speaker at the summer institute of Children's Literature New England.
Jack Zipes
Jack Zipes is an author, scholar, teacher, translator, storyteller, activist, and an internationally recognized researcher and critic. He has worked with children's theaters in France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. A professor of German at the University of Minnesota, Jack has also taught at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, the University of Florida and New York University. His writings include, Don't Bet on the Prince, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, When Dreams Came True, Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition, Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre, and Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children’s Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. He was editor of The Lion and the Unicorn, the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, and the four-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature.
Lizbeth Zwerger
Lisabeth Zwerger, Austrian artist renowned for her illustration of children's books, especially European folk and fairy tales, was awarded the 1990 Hans Christian Andersen Award, given to an illustrator whose complete work has made an important international contribution to children's literature. Ms. Zwerger's paintings appear in many books, including The Merry Pranks of Till Eulenspiegel, Lullabies, Lyrics and Gallows Songs and numerous picture books featuring stories from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Oscar Wilde.
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