The members of our faculty are all widely published authors in the fields of children and young adult writing. Among the honors they have earned are the Newbery Medal, the Newbery Honor Award, the Dorothy Canfield Award, the Caldecott Medal, the Oklahoma Sequoya Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the Kerlan Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Parent’s Choice Award. Several authors have been National Book Award finalists. Their books have been cited in listings such as the American Library Association’s Best Book of the Year, the New York Public Library’s Best Book for the Teen Age, Booklist’s Book of the Decade, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Book of the Year, and many more.
Select individual faculty (listed below) or scroll down to browse entire list:
Jacqueline Briggs-Martin is the author of sixteen picture books for children. She is best known for Snowflake Bentley, which received a Caldecott medal in 1999. Chiru of High Tibet is forthcoming in 2010. Her books have won a Golden Kite Honor Award; been selected three times for the Lupine Award, given by the Maine Library Association “to recognize an outstanding contribution to children's literature of Maine;” been named four times to the Blue Ribbon List of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books; and made the Smithsonian Magazine's List of Notable Books.
In 2008 Martin received the Award for Excellence in Children's Literature from the Sterling North Society. The award is named after Sterling North, who wrote the 1964 Newberry Honor Book, Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era.
Jacqueline Briggs Martin has taught creative writing at Cornell College, at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and at The Loft Literary Center. She lives in Mount Vernon, Iowa. http://www.jacquelinebriggsmartin.com/
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Marsha Wilson Chall is the author of a chapter book for children and six picture books, including Up North at the Cabin, an American Booksellers Pick and winner of an International Reading Association Teacher’ s Choice Award; Bonaparte, a Smithsonian Notable Book for Children and winner of a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award; and Sugarbush Spring, awarded the 2008 Book of the Year by New York Agriculture in the Classroom and the Ohio Farm Bureau Award for Children’s Literature. A new picture book, One Pup’s Up, is due out in 2009. Marsha is also the recipient of a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Children’s Literature. She has been an adult literacy instructor and currently teaches at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. http://www.marshachall.com
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Kelly Easton is the author of nine novels for middle-grade readers and young adults, including her most recent, Hiroshima Dreams, winner of the 2008 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award, the ASTAL Rhode Island Middle School Book of the year award, and a MassBooks Highly Recommended listing. Also, Hiroshima Dreams is a Georgia Children's Book Award Nominee for 2009-2010. Forthcoming in June is The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes, a Junior Library Guild Selection. Her other awards include selection on the 2008-9 Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List, an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, an ALA Popular Paperback for Teens, the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Honor Award, a Golden Kite Honor Award, a CCBC Best Books selection, New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age selections, a Flamingnet Top Choice selection, and a Booksense Top Ten pick. Aftershock is one of the 22 titles on the final reading list for the 2010 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award. She has also published numerous articles and short stories and has had several plays produced. Kelly has an MFA in playwriting from the University of California at San Diego. She has taught writing and literature at the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and elsewhere. She has also worked as a consultant on curriculum development in clinical settings. She lives in Rhode Island and Massachusetts with her husband and children. http://www.kellyeaston.com
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Lisa Jahn-Clough is the author of the young adult novels Me, Penelope and Country Girl/City Girl, and is the author and illustrator of twelve picture books, including Alicia Has a Bad Day and Little Dog. Her picture book, Missing Molly, won a Parent’s Choice Honor Award, and My Friend and I was named one of the Best Kid’s Books of 1999 by Child Magazine. She has taught creative writing at Emerson College and in the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and was Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Illustration at the Maine College of Art from 2004-2008. Her latest picture book is forthcoming with Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010 and her latest novel is forthcoming with Houghton/Harcourt in 2012. Lisa lives in Portland, Maine and in Savannah, GA.
http://www.lisajahnclough.com
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Liza Ketchum is the author of fourteen books for young readers, including the recent historical novel, Where the Great Hawk Flies, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for Children’s Literature and the Julia Ward Howe/Boston Author’s Club Young Readers’ Award. Newsgirl, a novel that takes place in San Francisco in 1851, is due out from Viking in 2009. Her other titles about the American pioneer experience include Orphan Journey Home, which was serialized in 120 newspapers around the country, and the non-fiction titles, Into a New Country: Eight Remarkable Women of the West, an ALA “Best Book” for 2001, and The Gold Rush, a companion to the PBS series “The West.” Blue Coyote, the final title in her quartet of young adult novels, was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Other books include three contemporary middle grade novels, two biographies of women scientists, and a picture book, Good-bye, Sammy. Liza is a faculty member at the ASTAL Summer Institute at Rhode Island College. She has also taught in the MFA Program in Writing for Children at Vermont College, at Emerson College, and at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College. http://www.lizaketchum.com
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Ron Koertge is the author of a dozen books, most of them novels for young adults. These include Margaux With An X, Stoner & Spaz, and The Brimstone Journals. His most recent novel, Strays, was awarded the Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year and chosen as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Most of his books have been American Library Association choices for Best Books and/or Books for Reluctant Readers. Several have been listed in Booklist’s Books of the Decade and the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age. In addition, his work has won a Georgia Peach Book Honor Award and a Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award. Ron is also a published poet and taught at the city college in Pasadena, California, for many years and in the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
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Alexandria LaFaye is the author of seven novels for middle-grade readers with a new novel coming out in spring 2009. Her latest novel, Worth, won the Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction, a Nebraska Book Award, a California Book Award, and was listed on numerous "Best Book" lists. The Year of the Sawdust Man and Edith Shay were on the Best Book list for Bank Street College of Education. The Strength of Saints was awarded a Notable Children’s Book award by the Smithsonian Institute. Alexandria has new work under contract with Breakfast Serials. She is an associate professor of English at California State University in San Bernardino and teaches regularly in the Hollins University MA program in children’s literature. http://www.alafaye.com
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Mary Logue is an award-winning poet and mystery writer and has translated twenty-eight books for children from French into English. She has published seven adult mysteries; three collections of poetry for adults; one novel for young adults – Dancing With an Alien, which made several “Best” lists, including ALA Best Book for Young Adults and the New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; multiple books of nonfiction for young readers; and mysteries for young adults. She is co-author with her husband Pete Hautman of the Bloodwater mystery series for 10-14 year olds. The first book of that series, Snatched, was recently nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. Mary worked as an editor in children’s publishing for many years and has taught writing at Hamline University and at The Loft Literary Center. She is also an avid rug hooker. She lives in Minneapolis and Wisconsin. http://www.marylogue.com
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Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of seventeen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults, including Children of Alcatraz: Growing Up on the Rock; Daughters of the Desert: Remarkable Women of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions; Children of the Gold Rush and the upcoming picture book Susan B., Mama and B. Her awards include a Contribution to Literacy Award from the Alaskan Center for Books, a Willa Cather Award, a Sequoyah Children’s Book Award, and an “Outstanding Author” award from the Washington Organization of Reading Development. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and has taught creative writing for many years at Eastern Washington University. From 1994-98 she was the co-director of the Fairbanks Young Writers Institute. After living for twenty-four years in Alaska, she now lives in Spokane, Washington with her family. http://www.clairerudolfmurphy.com/
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Marsha Qualey is the author of several young adult novels, including Just Like That, Too Big a Storm, One Night, and Close to a Killer. Her books have appeared on numerous best-of-the-year lists, including ALA Quick Picks, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, IRA Readers’ Choice, New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, and School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year. She has won two Minnesota Book Awards and been nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Her novels are frequently included on state, library, and school district award lists. Qualey is also the author of a series of picture books with Picture Window Books, an imprint of Capstone Press, and has edited several books for Picture Window Books. http://www.marshaqualey.com/
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Phyllis Root is the author of over forty books, almost all of them picture books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her middle grade novel, Lilly and the Pirates, is currently under contract. Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble won the Minnesota Book Award, and Big Momma Makes the World won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Root was awarded a 2006 McKnight Fellowship for her book, Lucia and the Light. She has taught at the Loft, in the Complete and Practical Scholar program at the University of Minnesota and in the MFA in writing for children and young adults at Vermont College.
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Gary D. Schmidt is the author of more than fifteen books for children and young adults, including The Wednesday Wars, a 2008 Newbery Honor Award winner, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, which won a Newbery Honor award and a Michael L. Printz Honor award in 2005. His newest novel, Trouble, came out is spring 2008. In God’s Hands, a picture book co-authored with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, was a runner-up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award. In addition to multiple “Best Book” lists, his work has been given a Horn Book Honor award and a Blue Ribbon award by the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books. He has also authored or co-authored numerous textbooks, scholarly and academic books (including biographies of Katherine Paterson and Robert McCloskey), articles, and book reviews. In 1985 he received his Ph.D. in medieval languages and literature from the University of Illinois. He is a professor in the English department at Calvin College and lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan, with his wife and six children. Gary is currently working on a companion to The Wednesday Wars.
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Eleanora E. Tate is the author of eleven novels for young readers, including her most recent, the historical fiction novel Celeste's Harlem Renaissance. It is the 2007 American Association of University Women's North Carolina Book Award Winner for Juvenile Literature. It is also a 2008 IRA Teachers' Choice Award winner. Her acclaimed South Carolina trilogy consists of The Secret of Gumbo Grove; Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! (a "Children's Book of the Year"), and A Blessing in Disguise. Her many awards include the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the highest award given by the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc.; the 2000 Dr. Annette Lewis Phinazee Award; the Parents Choice Gold Seal Award (for The Secret of Gumbo Grove, also a California Young Reader Medal finalist). Her book Just an Overnight Guest was made into an award-winning film shown on PBS' Wonderworks Series and Nickleodeon. She is also the author of its sister book, Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School. In addition to her fiction, Eleanora E. Tate is the author of the biography, African American Musicians, and numerous short stories and essays. A folktale compiler and reteller, she is also the author of Retold African Myths. A long-time journalist, she wrote for the Iowa Bystander and the Des Moines Register and Tribune newspapers. She is an instructor with the Institute of Children's Literature, West Redding, CT, and a children's literature instructor with North Carolina Central University. She lives with her husband in Knightdale, NC. http://www.eleanoraetate.com/
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Jane Resh Thomas, a recipient of the Kerlan Award for contributions to children's literature, is the author of fifteen published and contracted books, including picture books, short fiction, middle-grade fiction, and biography. The Comeback Dog; Saying Good-Bye to Grandma; Courage at Indian Deep; and Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I have won, among other honors, a Parent's Choice Award; Notable Books and Best of the Best listing by the ALA; and a Minnesota Book Award. Clarion will publish her novella, Blind Mountain, in fall, 2007. She has taught for many years in the Vermont College low-residency MFA in writing for children and young adults. http://www.janereshthomas.com
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Anne Ursu writes fiction for adults, middle-grade readers, and young adults. Her first novel for adults, Spilling Clarence, was awarded a Minnesota Book Award, selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Authors, and nominated for the Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Association Award. Her second, The Disapparation of James was selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild and named one of the 10 best books of the year by the San Jose Mercury News. She has published two of three fantasy novels in the trilogy, The Cronus Chronicles: The Shadow Thieves, which was a finalist for Borders Original Voices Award and named a New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age, and The Siren Song. The third, The Immortal Fire, will be published in 2009. As a journalist and free-lance writer, Anne published weekly articles on theater and the arts in City Pages and The Portland Phoenix and has written for Glamour and the Washington Post Book World, Salon.com, and Espn.com. She is well-known as Batgirl, the former unofficial blogger for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. She lives in Ohio with her husband and child. http://www.anneursu.com/
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