Participants by Genre

Participants: Children's author

1970
children's author, poet
Adrian PAUNESCU
1981
children's author, fiction writer, playwright
José HIDALGO
1987
children's author, poet, translator
Pavel SRUT
1988
children's author
Celso Campos ROMÁN
1988
activist, children's author, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, translator
Jaroslav VEIS
1991
activist, children's author, fiction writer, poet
Jan VODNANSKY
1993
children's author, fiction writer
Sherryl JORDAN
1993
children's author, playwright
Yaroslav STELMAKH
1994
children's author
Seona SMILES
1996
children's author

KIM In Ae writes under the pen name of Kim Suh-Jung. She teaches at several colleges in Seoul and is a researcher at the Korea-Froebel Institute of Child Education. She holds the Ph.D. from the Department of Creative Literature at Chung Ang University. Dr. Kim is the author of A Conference of Ghosts (1991) and Nabi, Sabi, Bappi, the Three Kittens, (1994). She is also an active literary translator, with over 25 works from English and German into Korean. Dr. Kim is attending the IWP through the joint sponsorship of the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation and the University of Iowa.

1996
children's author, critic, editor

Serah Wanjiru MWANGI works with an outstanding publisher for children's books, Jacaranda Designs, the only publishing house in Kenya which actively recruits Kenyan writers and illustrators to produce high-quality juvenile literature by and about Kenya and its traditions. She is also currently editor of The Young Nation. She was recently chosen by the Forum for African Women Educationalists to write six textbooks highlighting African woman scientists for the upper elementary level. Ms. Mwangi holds the M.A. in literature from the University of Nairobi and belongs to the African Council for Communication Education, the Kenya Oral Literature Association, and the organization for Youth, Information, Education and Communication. In addition to her native Kikuyu she speaks Kiswahili. She is attending the IWP through the a grant from the US Information Agency.

1996
children's author, fiction writer

William TAYLOR is the author of books published world-wide; two thirds of his fiction has been short-listed for awards, including citations from the American Library Assocation and the New York Public Library, the Choysa Bursary for Children's Writers and the Esther Glen Medal. The author of thirty novels, twenty-three for children and young adults, Mr. Taylor has published three new books in 1996 alone: Circles (Penguin NZ); The Fatz Twins & the Haunted House (Harper Collins NZ), and Nick's Story (Longacre Press). A former school teacher and principal of the Ohakune School, he turned to writing full time in 1985. His first novel Episode came out in 1970, and since then his works have been published in multiple editions by Penguin, Scholastic, and others in Australia, the US, and Europe. He is a fellow of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

1996
children's author

Phan Thi VANG ANH is one of the most respected young authors of Vietnam and embodies the literary spirit of her native Hanoi and the contemporary vigor of Saigon, where she was raised. She is a medical doctor, specializing in neurology, at the Nguyen Trai Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. In 1994 the Youth Publishing House in Hanoi published two of her books for young people, O Nha and Hoi Cho; one of her short stories appeared in English translation in a recent issue of the University of Hawaii journal, Manoa. Described as "sharp, funny, humane," she is an artist who has won national respect in an arena where young writers are subjected to highly competitive scrutiny. Dr. Vang Anh is the IWP's first representative from Vietnam, and is sponsored by the US Information Agency.

1997
children's author, fiction writer, playwright

Zakaria ARIFFIN (born in Kuantan, 1952) is research officer and language planning officer at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka literary organization of Malaysia. He also teaches scriptwriting and drama part time at the National Art Academy in Kuala Lumpur and is a freelance writer/director for theatre and television. He is the author of ten plays, among them The Opera House (1988), which received multiple national awards; books for children and young adults; twenty scripts for documentary video, and eighty essays, works of criticism and reviews, including co-authorship of A History of Modern Malay Literature, vol. 2 (1992), Introduction to Malay Traditional Arts (1992); he edited Modern ASEAN Plays: Malaysia (1994). He holds the BA (hons.) from the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. The Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia is his sponsor.

1997
children's author, fiction writer, poet

Steve SHARRA (fiction writer, poet and children's author, Malawi; born in Ntcheu, 1971) is considered one of his country's bright and promising writers. His children's novel, Fleeing the War, won the British Council Write a Story competition and was published by Macmillan Malawi in 1996. He is presently editorial assistant for educational materials at the Malawi Institute of Education, acting president of the Malawi Writers Union, and was chairperson of the 1997 Malawi Book Fair & Literary Festival. He also belongs to the Copyright Society of Malawi and the Malawi PEN organization. A teacher by training and freelance journalist, Mr. Sharra has taught in primary schools and contributed articles to various publications and the radio, including the BBC. He is interested in familiarizing himself with US literary history while he is at the University of Iowa. His participation is supported by the US Information Agency.

Samson Oke AKOMBI
2004 Resident
children's author, non-fiction writer, poet

Samson Oke AKOMBI is a part-time lecturer at the Catholic University of Central Africa and a research officer at the Yaounde Pilot Linguistic Center. A winner of the Literary Prize of the National Association of Cameroonian Poets and Writers, Mr. Akombi's publications include A Children's Adventure into Verse (1993) and Basic Notes on Modern English Grammer (1994). He is participating courtesy of the Department of State.

CHEN Danyan
2004 Resident
children's author, fiction writer, non-fiction writer

CHEN Danyan / 陈丹燕 (b. 1958), after studying Chinese literature at Eastern China Normal University, became editor of Children's Epoch and translator of children's literature. As an independent writer and journalist she subsequently produced documentaries for Shanghai TV, and wrote a large number of stories and novels for both young people and adults. Her debut, The Chinese Girl (1984), won the Shanghai Young Writers Prize. In 1992, A Girl (also known as Nine Lives ) won the Austrian national Youth Book Prize and the UNESCO Literature of Tolerance gold prize. The themes of her 1998 collection Shanghai Princess , which dwelt on women and the only-one-child generation, marked a new genre. Since 1997, she has been famous for her Shanghai stories, translated to Japanese, Vietnamese and English. Over 50 of her books appeared in China, Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Taiwan. She lives in Shanghai, and participates courtesy of the Freeman Foundation.

Véronique TADJO
2006 Resident
children's author, fiction writer, poet

Véronique TADJO from Ivory Coast is the author of two poetry collections, five novels, and several children’s books. She attended Howard University on a Fulbright, and has a doctorate in African American Studies from the Sorbonne. For several years, she taught at the University of Abidjan in Ivory Coast. She edited and illustrated Talking Drums (2000), an anthology of African poetry. Her work has been awarded by the Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique and the UNICEF, with the novel Reine Pokou ['Queen Pokou'] receiving this year's Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire. She lives in South Africa. She participates courtesy of a private gift to the IWP.

Penelope TODD
2007 Resident
children's author, editor, fiction writer

Penelope TODD writes fiction for youth and adults. She lives in New Zealand's southernmost city of Dunedin where she works as an editor. Zillah, the final installment of her young adult Watermark trilogy, was published this year. A memoir, Digging for Spain, is forthcoming in 2008, and she is at work on a new novel for adults, tentatively titled On this Island. She participates courtesy of Creative New Zealand.

Uchechukwu Peter UMEZURIKE
2008 Resident
children's author, fiction writer, poet

Uchechukwu Peter UMEZURIKE is the author of the children’s novel Sam and the Wallet (2007), the collection of short stories Tears in Her Eyes (2005), and two volumes of poetry, Aridity of Feelings (2006) and Dark Through the Delta (2004), which collectively have brought him numerous national and international awards. His collection of folk tales, Tim the Monkey and Other Stories, is forthcoming later this year. At present he is working on a collection of poems centered on the despoliation the Niger Delta. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.

Pages

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