Karen Cushman
Newbery award-winning children’s book author
Professor Nancy Roser, of the University of Texas at Austin, shaped a poem from her children’s literature seminar students’ resonant phrases after they read Catherine, Called Birdy. Prof. Rosen framed the poem with a page from the original manuscript, which she studied at the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota, where my working materials are housed. Thank you to Nancy and her students! This is a toast I will always cherish.
I signed books at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) booth, including one for the students at Millard Fillmore School. You can see Millard himself hanging out behind us.
Afterwards I celebrated with my panel folks: Kirby Larson and Barbara O’Connor and (pictured, left) our panel moderators, Miriam Martinez of UT San Antonio, and Nancy Roser of UT Austin. Miriam and Nancy did an amazing job of turning our vague mutterings about “place” and “world building” from a couple of years ago into Thursday’s multi-media panel. Thank you.
Then followed a dinner given by HMH with a number of teachers, writers, and professors. At right are Dinah Stevenson, who has been my beloved editor for 20 years, and David Wiesner, the picture book king. We were at dinner for 5 (!) hours and enjoyed every minute.
Actually from Kirby Larson‘s house. Actually from Kirby Larson’s beach house. Phil and I spent Friday there watching the sun set and enjoying the company of Kirby and her husband Neil, Nancy Roser of the University of Texas, and Miriam Martinez, also of that institution. We were cooking up a panel for the NCTE 2012 conference. Something to do with world building in fiction and poetry. Watch this space for updates. Now I will sit and stare at this photo and remember how we counted the stars.