Louise Hawes, who lives outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has written books for all ages, her last three for young adults. Rosey in the Present Tense was an ALA Popular Paperback of 2000; Waiting for Christopher was a 2003 New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age; and The Vanishing Point, a 2005 New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age, was also nominated as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Louise, whose first picture book debuted in 2006, will prove she “covers the waterfront” when the University Press of Mississippi publishes a collection of her short fiction for adults in 2007. “Beauty,” she claims, “is not an inherent quality, but a perception, a moment. Everyone and everything is beautiful sometime, and no one and nothing can be beautiful forever.” For more on Louise, check out www.louisehawes.com.
J. James Keels has self-published chapbooks, contributed to various underground zines, and read at Bay Area poetry readings. He holds a BA in sociology and human sexuality studies from San Francisco State University. He later received an MFA in writing from Vermont College. A regular faculty member of the Community College of Vermont, he is now an MA candidate in elementary education at Johnson State College. He lives in Vermont and is currently at work on a young adult novel. “Physical beauty,” he says, “has nothing to do with those unrealistic, unhealthy media images many strive toward. Beauty comes with self-actualization—from our own unique substance. Beauty cannot be planned or calculated. Beauty cannot be purchased in a store. When we are true to ourselves, and not external pressures, we are truly fabulous.”
Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers’ voices—often in witty repartee—and that is fully evident in his Margaux with an X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. Another unlikely pairing is found in Stoner & Spaz, Ron’s funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. A faculty member for more than thirty-five years at Pasadena City College, he taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing. In addition to his young adult novels, Ron writes poetry. His novel in poetry Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix, including a sonnet, a haiku, a pastoral, and even a pantoum. The Brimstone Journals is another poetry novel, with fifteen different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. Ron grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California, where, he says, “I like to bet on thoroughbreds, and there’s no lovelier sight than having them turn for home with my choice running easy at about ten to one.”
Chris Lynch proved he isn’t afraid to talk about the difficult emotions in our lives, such as rage, with his novel Inexcusable, a 2005 National Book Award finalist. He is the Michael L. Printz Honor Award–winning author of Freewill and several other highly acclaimed young adult novels, including Gold Dust, Iceman, Gypsy Davy, and Shadowboxer—all ALA Best Books for Young Adults. He is also the author of Extreme Elvin, Whitechurch, and All the Old Haunts. He holds an MA from the writing program at Emerson College. He mentors aspiring writers and continues to work on new literary projects. He lives in Boston and in Scotland. “My take on beauty?” he says. “Same as everybody else—your beautiful soul, love.”
Norma Fox Mazer lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, the writer Harry Mazer. She has published nearly thirty novels and short-story collections for young adults. Her novels, including Missing Pieces, Out of Control, When She Was Good, and the Newbery Honor Book After the Rain, are critically acclaimed and popular among young readers for their realistic portrayal of teens in difficult situations. In her novel Girlhearts, she brings back the memorable characters from her beloved book Silver, who continue to deal with life’s hardest moments through their honest and touching relationships. In her new book, What I Believe, she tells the story of Vicki through a variety of narrative and poetic forms, including letters, dialogues, free verse, sestinas, pantoums, and even a villanelle. Her character Beauty, in “How to Survive a Name,” will be featured in an upcoming novel. She says of beauty, “The word beautiful is an abstraction, but useful as shorthand for the almost unbearable pleasure of certain simple, lovely things in this complex world of ours, like the sun setting in a flush of pale green, or a baby gazing fresh at the world.”
Lauren Myracle has written many novels for teens and young readers: Kissing Kate, Eleven, ttyl, Rhymes with Witches, ttfn, The Fashion Disaster That Changed My Life, Twelve, and l8r, g8r. They’re all pretty good, and she thinks you should read them. Or not—whatever you please. As far as beauty goes, she has this to say: “People will tell you it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and they’re right. But let’s face it, the way we look on the outside plays a big role in the world too. Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does. So don’t beat yourself up for caring how you look. Just keep some perspective. And if it comes down to painting your nails or saving the world from evil incarnate, well, you know what to do.” Visit Lauren at www.laurenmyracle.com.
Jamie Pittel holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. Her story “What I Look Like” is excerpted and adapted from a novel in progress titled The East Pole. Another story, “Peloria,” appeared in Cicada magazine. Jamie lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. About beauty, she says, “I think words on a page are beautiful, and chopped vegetables sautéing in a cast-iron pan, and also the ocean. What we look like has a lot to do with how we decorate ourselves.”
Anita Riggio has illustrated more than two dozen picture books, six of which she also wrote. “Bingo” is her first published story for young adults. Her first novel, Jitterbug, is forthcoming. Anita currently mentors other writers in the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She and her husband live on a cove in Connecticut, where they raised their two grown children. Simply put, she says, “Beauty is grace manifested.”
Mary Ann Rodman’s books include Jimmy’s Stars and Yankee Girl, both middle-grade novels. She has also written two picture books, My Best Friend and First Grade Stinks. Music is important to Mary Ann because she always writes to it. She lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and daughter. When talking about beauty, Mary Ann defines it personally: “For me, it is a perfectly expressed thought . . . the kind that needs no further clarification or distillation.”
Ellen Wittlinger has published ten novels for young adults and many short stories. One of her books, Hard Love, won a Lambda Literary Award and was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Her latest novel is Blind Faith from Simon & Schuster. She lives in western Massachusetts. “Beauty is that which inspires me,” she says. “Most young people are beautiful because of the hope and love and vulnerability that radiate from them. The fact that very few of them believe in their beauty can be heartbreaking.” Visit Ellen at www.ellenwittlinger.com.
Jacqueline Woodson recalls the way her fifth-grade teacher’s eyes lit up when she said of Jackie’s writing, “This is really good.” Jackie says that was when “I—the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments—sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desk, smiled, and began to believe in me.” Her books have won numerous awards, including the YALSA Top Ten Best Books and 2005 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers for her most recent young adult novel, Behind You. Her novel Show Way was a 2006 Newbery Honor Book. Her novel in poetry, Locomotion, was a National Book Award finalist, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and received the 2003 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for fiction. Some other award-winning novels include Hush, If You Come Softly, and Miracle’s Boys. Speaking of beauty, Jackie says, “I think true beauty is having the ability to see ‘beauty’ in everything—even something ‘tragic’ or ‘heartbreaking.’ To not close one’s eyes to the world around us, but to be in each moment fully—no matter what.” To learn more about Jackie, visit www.jacquelinewoodson.com.
Tim Wynne-Jones says, “Beauty takes your breath away and keeps it in a glass locket. There is no picture in the locket, only your breath, hanging there below her smile.” Tim has written more than two dozen books, including adult novels, picture books, short-story anthologies, and young adult novels. He has twice won the Canadian Governor General’s Award for children’s literature: for Some of the Kinder Planets and The Maestro. He also won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Planets. His work has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Danish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and Catalan. His novel The Boy in the Burning House won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, and was shortlisted for the Guardian Award in Great Britain. His most recent young adult novel, A Thief in the House of Memory, made the Best Book lists of both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. He lives with his wife, Amanda West Lewis, in Perth, Ontario. His three grown children live in London, Halifax, and Toronto. To learn more about Tim, visit www.timwynne-jones.com.
Editor Ann Angel has written biographies for educational markets but has focused on her true obsession, young adult fiction, since graduating in 1999 from Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She has taught as a writer/counselor for the National Book Foundation’s summer writing program and teaches journalism and creative writing at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, where she lives with her husband and whichever of her four young adult kids happen to be home. Ann defines beauty as “family, friends, and sometimes even strangers connecting in a meaningful way. It is the way writers, both new and known, joined together out of friendship and mentoring to bring their beautiful art into the world for this book.” Visit Ann at www.annangelwriter.com.