This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(January 2024) |
Jen Bryant | |
---|---|
Born | Jennifer Fisher May 13, 1960 Easton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Occupation | Children's and young adult writer and poet |
Genre | Non-fiction, picture books, biographies, novels, poetry |
Website | |
www |
Jen Bryant (born 1960) is an American poet, novelist, and children's writer.
Bryant has won several awards for her work, including the Robert F. Sibert International Book Medal for The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award for A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, and the Schneider Family Book Award for Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. Her books The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams have been distinguished with Caldecott Honors for Melissa Sweet's artwork.
Bryant (née Jennifer Fisher) was born in Easton, Pennsylvania and grew up in Flemington, New Jersey. [1] Bryant grew up next to a funeral home, where her father and grandfather were undertakers. She was fascinated by the manual typewriter her father used and would "try and copy whatever material happened to be lying around: drafts of obituaries. And what are obituaries, really, but one’s life summed up in a paragraph or two? Good ones leave an impression of the person as an individual. I suppose as I practiced typing them, I must have absorbed some of the craft behind the writing of these little ‘biographies'." [2]
She graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School in 1978 [1] and attended Gettysburg College, where she received her bachelor's degree in French and minored in German and secondary education. She then taught French and German at Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Virginia, where she also coached their cross country teams. [3]
After moving with her family to Chester County, Pennsylvania, Bryant began to write poetry, to study independently with poet Tina Barr, and to host poetry readings in local independent bookstores. Encouraged and mentored by Eileen Spinelli and Jerry Spinelli, authors, she began to write picture books and novels in verse and to submit them to publishers. She continued to teach and to write while obtaining a master of arts in English (1999) from Arcadia University, mentored by poet David Keplinger.
Beginning in 1999, Bryant taught writing and children's literature at West Chester University and delivered lectures and workshops for schools and colleges. She continued to write poetry for adults as well as novels and picture books for children, eventually focusing on the latter as her publications list grew. Bryant's writing for children has been recognized with several awards and honors, including the Robert F. Sibert International Book Medal, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the Schneider Family Book Award.
In May 2013, along with Julia Chang Bloch and David Gergen, Bryant received an honorary doctorate degree from Gettysburg College. [4] She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Gettysburg College. [5]
This section's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines.(January 2024) |
Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball
Call Me Marianne
Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson
Fortune of Carmen Navarro, The
Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, The
River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, A
Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille
Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, A
Bryant lives with her family in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. [6]
Bryant's poems and articles have appeared in Highlights magazine and IMAGE: A Journal of Art and Religion, among others. Her work is anthologized in Rush Hour: A Journal of Contemporary Voices (Delacorte Press); You Just Wait, The Poetry Friday Anthology; The Poetry Anthology for Middle School (all Pomelo Press); One Minute Till Bedtime (Little, Brown.)
"It's Not Pretty," Jen Bryant, Bookology magazine, Knock Knock, Apr. 25, 2015, accessed Oct. 29, 2018
“Working with an Editor,” Nonfictionary, Bookology magazine, February 8, 2018, accessed Oct. 29, 2018
"The Writing Apprenticeship," Jen Bryant, Bookology magazine, Knock Knock, Nov. 11, 2015, accessed Oct. 29, 2018
Selected children’s books by Jen Bryant have been translated into Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Six Dots, her biography of inventor Louis Braille is available in a print/ braille edition.
A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin was adapted for the stage by Book-It Repertory Theater, Seattle, Washington.
Peter Mark Roget was a British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer, and founding secretary of The Portico Library. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, a classified collection of related words. He also read a paper to the Royal Society about a peculiar optical illusion in 1824, which is often regarded as the origin of the persistence of vision theory that was later commonly used to explain apparent motion in film and animation.
James John Patrick Murphy was an American author. He wrote more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti is an American writer of children's literature whose work includes Kids on Strike! and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow.
Russell A. Freedman was an American biographer and the author of nearly 50 books for young people. He may be known best for winning the 1988 Newbery Medal with his work Lincoln: A Photobiography.
Deborah Hopkinson is an American writer of over seventy children's books, primarily historical fiction, nonfiction and picture books.
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow is a non-fiction children's book written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and published in 2005. It received the Newbery Honor medal in 2006.
Neal Porter is an American children's book editor. He is the founder of Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House.
The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children recognizes books which demonstrate excellence in the "writing of nonfiction for children." It is awarded annually by the National Council of Teachers of English to one American book published the previous year. Up to five titles may be designated as Honor Books. The award is named after the book considered to be the first picture book for children, Orbis Pictus, by John Amos Comenius, which was published in 1657. The award has recognized one book annually without exception since it was inaugurated in 1990.
Shelley Tanaka is a Canadian editor of numerous young adult novels, an author of non-fiction for children, a translator, and a writing teacher.
Candace Groth Fleming is an American writer of children's books, both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-honored The Family Romanov and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns, among others.
Melissa Sweet is an American illustrator and writer of children's books of nearly 100 books.
Kate and Jol Temple are Australian children's authors. They are the 2020 winners of the Charlotte Huck Award for book Room on Our Rock. They are also widely known for their 2017 Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book Captain Jimmy Cook Discovers Third Grade, published by Allen and Unwin. The book was praised for its use of humour and history.
Evette Dionne is an American culture writer. Her young adult debut Lifting As We Climb (Viking) was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Dionne was editor-in-chief of Bitch from 2018 until 2021.
Tanya Lee Stone is an American author of children's and young adult books. She writes narrative nonfiction for middle-grade students and young adults, as well as nonfiction picture books. Her stories often center women and people of color.
Stephen Wilkins Jenkins was an American children's book author. He illustrated, wrote, and art-directed over 80 books.
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream is a nonfiction children's book by Tanya Lee Stone, originally published February 24, 2009 by Candlewick Press, then republished September 27, 2011. The book tells the story of the Mercury 13 women, who, in 1958, joined NASA and completed testing to become astronauts.
Jason Chin is an author and illustrator of children's books. His books, which usually deal with science and nature, were the recipients of a Caldecott Medal, a Sibert Honor and a Orbis Pictus Award.
Mara Rockliff is an American author of children's books specializing in works based on true stories. Her book Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France won an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English. The American Library Association selected her book Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a Sibert Honor. She also received the Golden Kite Award for Me and Momma and Big John.
The Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, established in 2014 and organized by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), is an annual American literary award for children's fiction books. According to NCTE, the "award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder."
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines.(January 2024) |