News of CLNE Associates
Board Members, Friends, Participants...
We've made every effort to contact past CLNE speakers and leaders, and what follows is what we were able to glean before going to website press. Please do keep in touch with your news; write Gregory Maguire at gmwriter@aol.com We'll try to update this page several times a year.
| To receive a copy of the festschrift called "And We'll All Go Together: A CLNE Keepsake," please write Gregory Maguire at gmwriter@aol.com The publication is free while supplies last though mailing and handling charges may apply. The keepsake album is privately printed and its publication has been underwritten by private contributions. |
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BARBARA HARRISON writes:
I'm directing THE EXAMINED LIFE: GREEK STUDIES IN THE SCHOOLS (ExL), a professional program for educators (teachers librarians, et al), aimed at strengthening the study of Greece in the schools of the nation. Like CLNE, ExL hopes to raise public consciousness and knowledge of a subject vital to our understanding of ourselves and our times. Participants study Greek literature, history, philosophy, art, and the impact of Greece on American ideals and culture. Like CLNE, too, ExL is a literature based program, highlighting Greek mythology, and the epic poems, tragedies, comedies, histories, and works of the philosophers. Through web casting and video conferencing, we hope to make the program available to CLNE friends and colleagues across the nation.
Please take a look at the website at http://www.teachgreece.org and don't hesitate to be in touch with me at Ithaka07@comcast.net or with Connie Carven at Connie_Carven@newton.K12.ma.us.
In November 2006, we hear that:
M. T. ANDERSON's novel, THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION, VOLUME 1: THE POX PARTY has been named the winner of the National Book Award for children's books. It's hard to write that sentence without exclamation points, but in conformance with his prose style, we're trying to exercise an eighteenth-century reticence. (!)
JENNIFER ARMSTRONG has spent the fall touring to promote two new books, THE AMERICAN STORY: 100 TRUE TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY and ONCE UPON A BANANA, a madcap picture book illustrated by David Small.
MARC ARONSON, launching a partnership with Candlewick Press, announces three titles for '07: ROBERT F. KENNEDY, CRUSADER, (Viking); THE WORLD MADE NEW: WHY THE AGE OF EXPLORATION HAPPENED AND HOW IT CHANGED THE WORLD (with John W. Glenn) (National Geographic), and RACE: THE HISTORY OF AN IDEA, A PREJUDICE, A MAJOR STRAND IN WESTERN CIVILATION AND IN MY OWN LIFE (Ginee Seo Books).
MOLLY BANG writes that IN MY HEART (Little Brown) was brought out in 2005, a favorite book but, she thinks, underappreciated; in the fall of 2007 we will see LITTLE RAT MAKES MUSIC, with a text by her daughter.
ASHLEY BRYAN wrote to Jane Langton: "I've been painting from the gardens outdoors. In Winter I come indoors and a theme of the past five years has been large oils, based on the small watercolors in my SING TO THE SUN, from which FULL MOON comes, and THE NIGHT HAS EARS. I'm having a good time of it." LET IT SHINE, previewed at CLNE's 2006 institute, comes out in January 2007.
MARGARET CHANG is serving on the 2007 Batchelder Committee, "trying to choose the best translated book of the 2006 publishing year." In September Maggie delivered a paper at the 2006 IBBY Congress in Macau, China.
SUSAN COOPER is contributing a one-act play for an anthology to be published by Atheneum, and continues to oversee construction on her new home on the Massachusetts seacoast; her VICTORY was released by Margaret K. McElderry Books in 2006.
SHARON CREECH tells us she's on the road a lot this fall and next spring with a readers' theatre group (www.authorsreaderstheatre.com) and is having fun, despite the fact that she loathes traveling.
KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND has just published GATTY'S TALE, his medieval pilgrimage novel; and he and his wife Linda are on the point of moving into their converted north Norfolk barn.
EMMA DRYDEN, Vice President and Associate Publisher, Atheneum Books for Young Readers and Margaret K. McElderry Books, is pleased to have included on her Fall 2006 lists the New York Times bestseller PETER PAN IN SCARLET by CLNE speaker Geraldine McCaughrean.
SARAH ELLIS has written a script for a children's television production; her most recent novel is ODD MAN OUT, from Groundwood Books, Toronto.
MICHAEL FOREMAN has three books out in the Fall of 2006, including MIA'S STORY and BEOWULF, both Candlewick Press, and FOX TAIL from Andersen Press, UK. Forthcoming projects include a two-volume edition of the complete short stories of Robert Louis Stevenson.
FRANCES FOSTER, vice-president at Farrar Straus and Giroux and publisher of Frances Foster Books, looks forward to bringing out JAMEEL AND THE HOUSE OF DJINN by Suzanne Fisher Staples in the Spring of '08 and THE WALL: GROWING UP BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN by Peter Sís in the Fall of '07.
JEAN CRAIGHEAD GEORGE has concerned herself of late with several media projects around the subject of global warming, including THE LAST POLAR BEAR, a picture book "about this Arctic alarmer."
VIRGINIA GOLODETZ (Ginny) retired from the Board of CLNE in September 2006 after serving as a Board Member for eleven years and many other years of service before that.
BARBARA HARRISON directs The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools (ExL); please see her description of the program in the note that heads this section of the CLNE website.
BETSY HEARNE anticipates the publication of HAUNTINGS: STORIES OF DANGER, LOVE, AND SOMETIMES LOSS; she retired in August 2007 and looks forward to being a full-time writer, which she has yearned for since she was four years old and wrote, for her mother, her first book of PEOMS. Spelled as such.
DANIEL HANDLER (Lemony Snicket) wraps up the thirteen volume series, "A Series of Unfortunate Events," with THE END (HarperCollins, 2006).
K. T. HORNING is revising FROM COVER TO COVER. She interviewed Tobin Anderson in the November issue of School Library Journal about THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, VOLUME ONE: THE POX PARTY.
KATHY ISAACS, longtime middle school teacher and occasional librarian, currently teaches children's literature to pre-service teachers at Towson University and serves on the ALA/ALSC Notable Children's Books Committee.
GINNY MOORE KRUSE received the Alumni Anniversary Award from the University of Oshkosh-Wisconsin; the award recognizes members of the 50th reunion class who have significant lifetime career accomplishments. She is chair of the 2007 Geisel Book Award Committee, and joined political grassroots efforts in her home state of Wisconsin leading up to the 2006 midterm elections.
MEGAN LAMBERT has been promoted to the position of Instructor of Children's Literature Programs at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in recognition of her role's changing focus to professional development programs at The Carle.
JOHN LANGSTAFF continues to be missed, and his life to be celebrated. We recommend the website www.revels.org if you would like to read reminiscences and tributes. On this site (click on Revels Store, then John Langstaff Collection) you can find the JOHN LANGSTAFF SINGS box set of four cassette disks; it is a thrilling compilation.
JANE LANGTON has written another novel for children about the Hall family of Concord, Massachusetts; THE DRAGON TREE will come out from HarperCollins in 2008. She is at work on the second draft of her THURBER MURDER, following the adventures of amateur sleuth Chester Braithwaite as he interviews the Icky Family, the Excitable Grammarian, the Squeegee Man, the Gullible Old Couple, and the Squeamish Archeologist.
BETTY LEVIN's novel, THORN (Front Street, 2005) was named a 2005 Best Book of the Year by the Children's Book Committee, Bank Street College of Education.
JEAN LITTLE travels in Bulgaria on behalf of an organization for the blind in that country, and to promote ORPHAN AT MY DOOR, translated into Bulgarian. "LISTEN," SAID THE DONKEY: TALES OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS is a current title; and IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE: THE FLU EPIDEMIC DIARY OF FIONA MACGREGOR, TORONTO 1918 is expected from Scholastic Canada, 2007.
JOANNA RUDGE LONG's article on IBBY 2006 in Macau appears in the January / February 2007 Horn Book Magazine.
LOIS LOWRY is currently adapting her book GOSSAMER (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) to the stage. In April 2007, GOONEY THE FABULOUS will be published.
CLAIRE MACKAY continues to breathe at regular intervals.
PATRICA MacLACHLAN has brought out the final book in her Sarah Series, GRANDFATHER'S DANCE, and anticipates a picture book in Spring 2007, FIONA LOVES THE NIGHT, and a novel in the Fall, EDWARD'S EYES. Early in 2007 she travels to Africa to meet her new grandchild.
GREGORY MAGUIRE returns from London where he celebrated the West End premiere of WICKED with Jill Paton Walsh, John Rowe Townsend, and Philip and Jude Pullman. In its first month in England, WICKED broke UK box office records for highest receipts recorded in a single week. WHAT-THE-DICKENS, a novel for children, is due from Candlewick Press in the Fall of 2007.
MARGARET MAHY writes "The CLNE conferences always stood out for me (in a world full of conferences) because of their literary depth wonderfully connected by a flow of warm companionship, by reading experiences (mutual yet individual too), and, of course, by the beautiful New England setting which we all enjoyed even as we listened and talked passionately about past and present books sometimes to the actual authors and illustrators."
LEONARD S. MARCUS's recent and forthcoming books include THE WAND IN THE WORD: CONVERSATIONS WITH WRITERS OF FANTASY (Candlewick Press, 2006) and GOLDEN LEGACY: HOW GOLDEN BOOKS BECAME AN AMERICAN ICON (2007). Visit his website at www.leonardmarcus.com.
DARYL MARK, who joined the Board of CLNE in September 2006, has spent the fall helping to organize an outreach program (funded by Verizon Foundation) for the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Public Library. In early November the CPL organized a visit by Linda Sue Park, and is looking forward to a visit by Janet Wong on March 26, 2007.
GILLIAN McCLURE tells us that she has done the illustrations for MARIO'S ANGELS: A STORY ABOUT GIOTTO, text by Mary Arrigan. Frances Lincoln, publisher, will also bring out a collection of Korean folk tales, text and illustrations both by Gillian.
SALLY DERBY MILLER anticipates the publication of two books, a picture book tentatively called NO MUSH TODAY (Lee & Low) and a novel, KYLE'S ISLAND (Charlesbridge).
KYOKO MORI now teaches nonfiction writing in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington, D.C.
BARRY MOSER is busy at illustrations for BLESSING OF THE BEASTS by Ethel Pochocki, to be published by Paraclete Press next spring or summer.
DONNA JO NAPOLI is going around the world in March 2007 Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok, Dhaka and she writes that "I'm working on a book that scares me."
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE writes "Speaking at CLNE and much more importantly listening to everyone ELSE speak at CLNE was one of the most profound experiences of my entire listening life. I will never forget it. Those magnificent sessions of wisdom go with me everywhere, in a treasure pouch in the brain." Her forthcoming work from Greenwillow, 2007, is called I'LL ASK YOU THREE TIMES, ARE YOU OKAY?
LINDA SUE PARK's ARCHER'S QUEST, a midgrade novel, was released by Clarion Books in the Spring of 2006; a forthcoming poetry collection from Clarion is expected in the Fall of 2007, called TAP DANCING ON THE ROOF. She served on the National Book Award jury this year, she spoke at Reading the World in San Francisco, and she delivered the Frances Clarke Sayers lecture at UCLA as well.
MARTHA VAUGHAN PARRAVANO has been appointed to the 2007 Newbery committee, and is working with Roger Sutton on a book for "reading parents," expected from Candlewick Press. She writes, "I miss everyone already!"
KATHERINE PATERSON celebrates some great reviews for BREAD AND ROSES, TOO, Clarion, 2006.
JILL PATON WALSH is looking forward to a new Imogen Quy mystery, THE BAD QUARTO, published in the UK in 2007 by Hodder/Headline.
MEG ROSOFF's latest novel, JUST IN CASE, was published in August '06; THE DARK AGES is due out '07. In the Spring of '07 the film of HOW I LIVE NOW begins shooting with Thomas Vinterberg directing.
CLAUDIA RUEDA's new book, LET'S PLAY IN THE FOREST WHILE THE WOLF IS NOT AROUND! appeared from Scholastic in September, 2006.
LEDA SCHUBERT expects to publish a Boston Globe online novel called, she thinks, NATHAN'S SONG; her BALLET OF THE ELEPHANTS is a Kirkus Editor's Choice and was selected for the Texas Bluebonnet Award Masterlist for 2007-2008.
MAURICE SENDAK's first pop-up book, MOMMY hit the New York Times bestseller lists immediately on publication in October by Scholastic/Michael di Capua Books.
MARILYN SINGER's latest books include LET'S BUILD A CLUBHOUSE (Clarion, 2006) and CATS TO THE RESCUE (Holt, 2006); look for her as a co-host of the Poetry Blast at ALA, 2007, in Washington D.C.
ROBIN SMITH is busy teaching, reviewing, and serving on the upcoming Geisel Award committee. Her most recent article, "What Makes a Good Book, For Second Graders" was published in the September/October issue of The Horn Book Magazine. See http://www.hbook.com/publications/magazine/articles/sep06_smith.asp .
SUZANNE FISHER STAPLES is helping to host an ambitious conference on July 26-29, 2007, at Keystone College in La Plume, Pennsylvania. Called The Gathering, it will "explore the dimensions of space-time and story-time, the convergence of ordinary and not-so-ordinary worlds," and speakers include CLNE's Jennifer Armstrong and Katherine Paterson. Suzanne's novel UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE was released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2005.
TANYA LEE STONE traveled to the Texas Book Festival and the Rochester Book Festival in the fall of '06 to promote A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL (Wendy Lamb / RH). Forthcoming books include ELIZABETH LEADS THE WAY about Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Holt, 2008) a biography of Ella Fitzgerald expected from Viking, and ALMOST ASTRONAUTS, which Marc Aronson recently acquired for Candlewick Press.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF, we think, would be delighted with Front Street's elegant paperback reissue in Spring 2006 of THE MARK OF THE HORSE LORD, which was awarded the Phoenix Prize in 1985.
MARIA TATAR has just finished work on THE ANNOTATED HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, which will appear in the Fall of 2007, and is engaged in a book about childhood reading to be called ENCHANTED HUNTERS.
DANIEL TERRIS, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University (www.brandeis.edu/ethics), is author most recently of ETHICS AT WORK: CREATING VIRTUE IN AN AMERICAN CORPORATION (UPNE, 2005).
BETTY TISEL lives in Minneapolis with her partner and two children, where she is busy with http://www.mombo.org and reading and recommending great kids' and YA books.
MARTHA WALKE works part time at the Norwich Bookstore, serves on the Green Mountain Book Award Committee, will soon join the 2007-09 ALSC Notable Book Committee, and works her border collies with varying degrees of success.
TONY WATKINS has returned to teaching at the University of Reading for the Fall 2006 term; his plans for further teaching there are up in the air as of this writing.
SYLVIA WAUGH reports that since the Mennyms, she's done a trilogy of sci-fi books called SPACE RACE, EARTHBORN, and WHO GOES HOME; a more recent book is BOMBS AND BUTTERFLIES, set in a kitchen during an air-raid shelter during World War II.
NANCY WERLIN's novel, THE RULES OF SURVIVAL (Dial/Penguin), is a National Book Award nomination.
VIRGINIA EUWER WOLFF will deliver the keynote address at Kindling Words, the annual weekend writers' retreat in Essex Junction, Vermont. Busy on revisions for the final volume of the MAKE LEMONADE trilogy, she's also contributed an article for the Sept-Oct issue of The Horn Book Magazine, an essay for the Authors and Illustrators for Children website, www.aiforc.org/thisidream, and continues to play the violin and to teach language-arts part-time.
TIM WYNNE-JONES has published in Canada a semi-autobiographical novel set in 1962 in the summer leading up to the Cuban missile crisis: REX ZERO AND THE END OF THE WORLD; American edition from FSG is due in February 2007.
JANE YOLEN's report: Following her beloved husband's death in March from cancer, Jane has regrouped and, at last, started writing again, built a house next door for her daughter Heidi Stemple and family, and keeps an online journal at www.janeyolen.com.
JACK ZIPES has published a new book, WHY FAIRY TALES STICK; THE EVOLUTION AND RELEVANCE OF A GENRE, which includes the talk on "Hansel and Gretel" that he delivered at CLNE 2005 (The Fairy Tale Belongs to the Poor). He is also translating a new collection of Sicilian folk tales by Giuseppe Pitre. |
