Our Authors - a baker's dozen!
Lisa Anchin has been drawing since she could hold a pencil and making up stories since she could speak. She received her BA from Smith College and took a long, circuitous route to an MFA at the School of Visual Art in New York. She is often holed up in her studio stringing words together and compulsively doodling, but she also loves meeting other kidlit folks and volunteers as the Illustration Coordinator for SCBWI‘s Metro NY chapter. She is the illustrator of A Penguin Named Patience by Suzanne Lewis (Sleeping Bear Press 2015) and I Will Love You by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Scholastic 2017). The Little Green Girl (Dial 2019) is her first author/illustrated title. Lisa lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and their two studio kittens.
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Marcie Flinchum Atkins grew up in Thailand, went to boarding school in Malaysia, and she read her way around every library she came across. Today she is an elementary school librarian outside of Washington, DC. and has over 20 years experience as classroom teacher and librarian. In the wee hours of the morning, she makes time to write her own stories. Marcie holds an M.A. and M.F.A. in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, and has five nonfiction titles forthcoming in 2019. She also muses about mentor texts and making time to write at www.marcieatkins.com. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcieFAtkins and read about her #writerlife on Instagram at @marciefatkins.
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Cassandra was born and raised in Massachusetts where she spent her childhood reading comic books, playing action figures, drawing super heroes, and participating in all things nerdy (before that became cool). She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University and moved to Los Angeles, where she became a hand model. She even played Jessica Alba’s hands once... When she's not pretending to be famous people’s hands, she's creating art and literature for children. The rest of the time she spends with her husband and son, chasing away the ducks that prefer their pool to the LA River.
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Richard would love to be able to claim that he began writing in the womb, or that he told his first story at age two. But he’ll save the fiction for his books. (Non-fiction, too. He doesn’t discriminate.) As a child, he was too busy consuming stories—listening to, reading, and breathing them—to even think about writing his own. After studying English literature in college, he worked as a journalist for five years before stumbling on a job as a scriptwriter for an educational company that makes animated videos for students. With that, his creative soul was stirred. Richard currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons. His first picture book, Red Rover, will be published by Roaring Brook Press in fall 2019. He hopes his kids will find his books as consuming as the ones he grew up with.
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Brooke Boynton-Hughes grew up in Loveland, Colorado where she spent her time drawing (mostly tree houses, mermaids and cats), reading picture books and hiking with her family. She has a BFA in printmaking from Colorado State University and an MFA in figurative art from the New York Academy of Art. Brooke has illustrated several books for kids including the Cupcake Cousins series by Kate Hannigan (Disney-Hyperion), Henry Wants More! by Linda Ashman (Random House 2015), and Coat Of Many Colors by Dolly Parton (Grosset & Dunlap 2016), among others. Brooke’s first book as author/illustrator, Brave Molly (Chronicle), will be released in 2019. When not working on book illustrations, Brooke can be found chasing after her twin toddlers and her dog, Olive.
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Jessica spent much of her childhood on adventures in the Rocky Mountains, where she developed a deep love and respect for nature. Her goal in her work is to help others to see the beauty of our spectacular planet. She has a BA in sculpture from Scripps College and has three books coming out in 2019, including Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet by Curtis Manley (Roaring Brook/Macmillan Kids, January 2019), Finding Narnia: The Story of C.S. Lewis and his Brother by Caroline McAlister (Roaring Brook/Macmillan Kids, November 2019) and her first book as both author and illustrator, The Fisherman and the Whale (Simon & Schuster, May 2019.) In addition to writing and illustrating, she enjoys painting en plein air, camping in magnificent wild places and dancing Argentine tango. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband, daughter, and three-legged cat. Visit her at www.jessicalanan.com
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Stephanie has done a few things in life. She has sold women shoes and frozen yogurt as well as smelly, expensive body lotion and smellier, even more expensive cheese. She has worked on a Jacques Pepin cooking show and been a cookbook editor. She has written about books, food, parenting, TV, vampire dating habits, cocktail trivia, and picky eating. She has lived in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, England, Boston, and San Francisco. She has attended a swank ball at University of Cambridge with Prince Charles (not that he was her date or anything just that he was also invited) and rebuilt trails with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Now she writes picture books surrounded by a few kids, a few cats, and one husband. She loves reading books and watching television shows in equal numbers and thinks everyone should try pairing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with bourbon.
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Cathy Ballou Mealey is a picture book writer and poet with degrees in psychobiology, classical civilization, and higher education administration. Her favorite job is “Mom,” but she’s also worked as a crossing guard, hash-slinger, gift-wrapper and pet sitter among other more lucrative but less interesting professional positions in college administration and teaching. Cathy is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and lives north of Boston, Massachusetts with her family. Her picture book debut, When A Tree Grows, illustrated by Kasia Nowowiejska, will launch on April 2, 2019 from Sterling Children’s Books.
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Shauna LaVoy Reynolds is an author, storyteller, and word nerd. She lives in a house full of books outside of Nashville, Tennessee with her supportive husband, two delightful kids, and an elderly poodle. Shauna is a member of the mighty Midsouth chapter of SCBWI and spends her days trying to make the world a lovelier place by writing uncommon stories for uncommon children. Up first: Poetree, illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani (Dial 2019.)
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Born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, and now living in the U.S., Teresa likes to draw on her various cultural experiences when she writes. With a background in linguistics/speech science and climatology, much of her writing tends to incorporate her love of science. Her work has appeared in Ladybug and Babybug magazines among other venues. Other things she enjoys doing are drawing and painting, making soap, knitting, baking, helping out around the homestead, and wowing the chickens with her bilingualism. Oddly enough, the chickens don't seem very impressed.
Teresa is also proud to be a part of the Minnows Literary Group which publishes speculative fiction anthologies to benefit Doctors Without Borders (MSF). They have raised a few thousand dollars so far for MSF in the past several years. |
James Serafino grew up reading, writing and drawing all kinds comics in the early mornings before anyone else was awake and all day after school. These traditions carried on through art school in New York City and beyond. Now James spends most of his time living in a fantasy world and wondering how many raccoons in formal attire is too many raccoons in formal attire. His work can be seen in Spider Magazine and his upcoming debut picture book This Little Piggy with Philomel in 2019.
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Sara F. Shacter began her career in children’s publishing as a contributing editor of ASK Magazine. Since then, she has written articles for magazines such as ASK, Click, Highlights for Children, and YES Mag: Canada’s Science Magazine for Kids. In 2006, she made her picture book debut with Heading to the Wedding (Red Rock Press). Having taught high school English for ten years, Sara enjoys educational publishing as well and has contributed to World Book’s Childcraft Annuals as both writer and copy editor. In addition, Sara co-authored three teacher’s guides for Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). When not writing for children, Sara dabbles in stories for adults and has contributed to three anthologies. She is currently working on several picture books and a MG novel. Visit her at www.sarafshacter.com.
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Hannah Stark grew up watching her mom, Marisabina Russo, create picture books in her studio. She remembers a house filled with children's books, as well as, bags of teaching materials, since her father was a teacher.
Today, Hannah's home is filled with picture books and teaching materials too. Hannah has been teaching elementary school in the New York City Public Schools for fifteen years. She loves making and sharing resources for other educators and teaching kids to write. Her debut book, Trucker and Train, was inspired while playing with her sons, Jackson and Travis. It will be out August 6, 2019 with Clarion Books. When not writing or teaching, Hannah can be found taking road trips and train rides to unfamiliar places. |