Three-Time National Book Award Finalist. Two-Time Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner. Former Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. Those are just a handful of the ways to describe Marilyn Nelson. Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Her first book for young people, Carver: A Life In Poems (Front [ Read the full article… ]
As a child, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson was captivated by the stories her mother read at bedtime. She soaked in the poems her father recited. Those early experiences gave her a deep appreciation for the power of literature and language. Today, part of Nelson’s mission is to share that gift with others: “I hope to give children some of what my parents gave me [ Read the full article… ]
When she was starting out, Joyce Hansen struggled to become a published author. Like many new writers, she received rejection letter after rejection letter. But Hansen found story gold when she drew from the richness of her Bronx childhood and the young people she taught. Those memories and observations inspired her first novel, The Gift-Giver, which began a distinguished children’s [ Read the full article… ]
Derrick Barnes is no stranger to the Brown Bookshelf community. Last year, we did a spotlight on his book The Making of Dr. Truelove as well as announced the debut of the Ruby and the Booker Boys series. In case it is not clear, the future is bright for author Derrick Barnes. Full of optimism, [ Read the full article… ]
Tanita S. Davis is an oddity in the world of children’s and young adult authors – she’s one of the few authors that actually set out to write YA fiction. School Library Journal calls her first novel for young adults, A La Carte (Knopf, 2008) a book “with a lot of heart,” and Kirkus says [ Read the full article… ]
Pat Cummings’ first drawings, she admits, were more like scribbles than anything resembling art. She would spend entire afternoons coloring them, and then her mother would try to guess what they were. A dinosaur? A duck? Or maybe even her Daddy? Although no one could figure them out, that didn’t stop her mother from bragging [ Read the full article… ]
As a child, Zetta Elliott felt the sting caused by racial slights and slurs. She endured the pain of divorce and the devastation of family breakup. As any child would feel given these situations, Zetta often felt invisible, overlooked — seen yet not heard. Her writing, like the works of many authors, reflect her personal [ Read the full article… ]
When Little Divas hit bookshelves in 2006 it could have been called Lonely Divas because there simply weren’t many middle grade novels, of its kind, aimed at African American readers – a refrain repeated often here at The Brown Bookshelf when we spotlight those authors working hard to fill the slowly shrinking but still present [ Read the full article… ]