Faculty and Staff
The National Writing for Children Center was created to help striving children’s writers develop their careers in the world of children’s publishing. It is also the online home of the Children’s Writers Coaching Club.
Both the National Writing for Children Center and the Children’s Writers Coaching Club help educate and connect aspiring and successful children’s writers, elementary school teachers and/or librarians to provide books, stories, and opportunities for literacy development for children everywhere.
Our Staff
Founder, Director, and Coaching Coordinator – Suzanne Lieurance
Suzanne Lieurance (www.workingwriterscoach.com) is a children’s writer with (at last count) 20 published books for children. She has also been an instructor with the Institute of Children’s Literature (located in West Redding, Connecticut) for 8 years. As The Working Writer’s Coach, Lieurance helps people who love to write become “working” freelance writers and make a living doing what they love to do best.
Site Coordinator – Adrian Lieurance
Students, teachers, and school staff members at schools where Suzanne Lieurance has visited lately will recognize Suzanne’s husband, Adrian, who often accompanies her on school visits. While Adrian does not write for children himself, he coordinates site activities so Suzanne has time to write books for children as well as make school visits and coach clients.
Graphics Designer – Lisa Harkrader
Lisa Harkrader is a talented graphics designer, illustrator, and an award winning children’s writer. She is the author of twelve books for children; the most recent is a middle-grade novel, Airball: My Life in Briefs, a Junior Library Guild Selection and winner of the 2006 Juvenile Literary Award from the Friends of American Writers. She has published over two hundred stories, articles, and poems in magazines such as Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, and Guideposts for Kids and in several anthologies, including Meadowbrook’s Newfangled Fairy Tales. She has received SCBWI’s Magazine Merit Award four times, for fiction and poetry.
Harkrader holds a BFA in art and has worked as a graphic designer for nearly twenty years. Her design clients include The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Rockhurst University.
Picture Book Reviewer – Carma Dutra
Carma Dutra is founder and owner of Carma’s Word, a creative writing and editing service. Carma’s writing knowledge includes newsletter publishing, editing, article writing, children’s short stories, book reviews and essays. Carma maintains her blog, Carma’s Window, where she writes about children’s books and children’s issues. Carma’s core desire is to inspire young children by her writing and open their minds through the printed word.
Carma is a contributing writer for Suite101.com, co-author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health, Self-Improvement Online, Inc.
Middle Grade Novel Reviewer – Donna McDine
Donna McDine is a 2007 graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature, Writing for Children and Teenagers program. She is also a member of the SCBWI, The Children’s Writers Coaching Club at The National Writing for Children Center, and Musing Our Children Group. Donna has been published in Stories for Children Magazine, Kid Magazine Writers, and Long Story Short.
Picture Book, MG and YA Novel Reviewer – Sharon Blumberg
Sharon Blumberg is a junior high Spanish teacher and a freelance writer. She has been teaching for 17 years. She currently teaches seventh grade Spanish in Illinois. She has two grown children and resides in Indiana with her husband and dog. She is an active member of The Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club and The Story Circle Network.
Picture Book Reviewer – Amy M. O’Quinn
Amy M. O’Quinn is a pastor’s wife and former schoolteacher-turned-homeschool mom of six. She is also a freelance writer who enjoys jotting down ideas around the fringes of family life. She specializes in non-fiction, and her work has been published or acquired by magazines including Jack and Jill, US Kids, Guideposts for Kids, Learning Through History Magazine, Highlights, GEORGIA Magazine, Homeschooling Today, International Gymnast, etc. She is also a product/curriculum/book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and a regular columnist for TEACH Magazine. The O’Quinns live on the family farm in rural south Georgia. You can find Amy’s blog, Ponderings From Picket Fence Cottage, at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/picketfencemom.
Contributing Editor for Teaching & Parenting Tips Column – Kathy Stemke
Kathy Stemke, a former classroom teacher, has recently retired to become a full time children’s author and freelance writer. She has a B.S. degree from Southern Connecticut State University and Covenant Life Seminary, as well as graduate coursework from New York Institute of Technology and Columbia University.
Hanging her hat in the North Georgia mountains she has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher, tutor, writer and an antiques dealer for many years. As a freelance writer she has published several articles. Kathy’s first children’s books, Moving Through All Seven Days and Trouble on Earth Day, are scheduled for release in 2009!
Read more about her and her work at:
http://educationtipster.blogspot.com/
http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html
http://kathystemke.weebly.com
Grier Cooper is a California based children’s writer, photographer, and dancer. She draws on over twenty years of experience as a dancer, teacher and performer to create both fiction and nonfiction that inspires, educates and enriches the hearts and minds of her readers.
Kristi Bernard loves to write. She comes from a very artistic family of musicians, artists and writers. Other hobbies include, painting, needlepoint, quilting and working with clay. Kristi graduated from Wichita State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English, with minors in Education and Minority Studies. Kristi aspires to write picture books covering topics that feature historical people of color, and subjects on famous women to empower young girls. To help achieve her goal of becoming a better writer she is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Association of Children’s Authors and Illustrators of Color (ACAIC) the Children’s Writers Coaching Club (CWCC), the Kansas City Writers Meetup Group and she is currently enrolled in The Institute of Children’s Literature.
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Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club Faculty
Instructor for the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club – Margot Finke
Margot Finke is an Aussie who writes mid grade adventure fiction, ghost mysteries, and rhyming picture books. For many years she has lived in Oregon with her husband and family. She began serious writing the day her youngest left for college. This late start drives her writing, and pushes her to work at it every day. Margot says, “I really envy those who began young, and managed to slip into writing mode between diaper changes, household disasters, and outside jobs. You are my heroes!” Gardening, travel, and reading fill in the cracks between her writing. Her husband, Alan, is supportive, and their three children are now grown and doing well out on their own.
Margot’s “Musings,” column can be read monthly in The Purple Crayon, and her Critique Service helps writers iron out plot and character problems. “Nothing gives me a greater thrill than to find out an editor bought a book I helped polish.” Her workshops at writer’s conferences are enhanced by the use of a PowerPoint presentation, as are her frequent school visits.
Margot’s series of 6 rhyming picture books, available as downloads or on CD, are fun and educational. They bring kids closer to cool critters from the US and Australia. See Excerpts, illustrations, and great reviews on her BOOKS page, along with how to BUY . All autographed copies of her books on CD come with a Qlippit link that lets you hear Margot reading that book.
Visit her website, and discover a World of Writing For Children.
Instructor for the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club – Simon Rose
Simon Rose was born in Derbyshire, England. He graduated from university with a degree in history and has lived in Canada since 1990. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature of West Redding, CT.
The Alchemist’s Portrait, Rose’s first novel for young readers was published in 2003, followed by The Sorcerer’s Letterbox in 2004. Both have been nominated for several awards and continue to receive excellent reviews. The Sorcerer’s Letterbox was shortlisted for the 2005 Silver Birch Award in Ontario and the Diamond Willow Award in Saskatchewan. The Clone Conspiracy was published in 2005 and The Emerald Curse in 2006, both having received great reviews from adults and children. A fifth novel, The Heretic’s Tomb, was released in October 2007.
Simon Rose’s books are published in Canada, the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand and are available around the world. His novels can be purchased in the USA through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many other online locations and also through local bookstores. Autographed copies may also be purchased at www.simon-rose.com
Nancy I. Sanders grew up on a dairy farm in Everett, PA, the youngest of seven children. She milked the cows, baled the hay, husked the corn… and loved to read! She read Little Women perched up high in the branches of an apple tree. She read Pride and Prejudice aloud with her future sister-in-law while floating on a raft in the middle of a pond.
Now Nancy loves to write. Her passion is to also help other writers discover their talents, craft their skills, and realize the fulfillment of personal goals through a successful writing career. She has written Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career, Award-Winning Finalist of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.
Nancy is the bestselling author of over 75 books including D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet, selected for the IRA Teacher’s Choices List as well as other awards (Sleeping Bear Press, illustrated by E. B. Lewis). Her credits include board books, novelty books, beginning readers, picture books, middle grade novels and books for teachers. Her column for children’s writers has appeared in The Writer’s online magazine, the Christian Communicator, and the Institute of Children’s Literature eNews.
Nancy and her husband, Jeff, live in Chino, CA and have two grown sons, Dan and Ben. To read Nancy’s blog and to find more information about Nancy’s books and her life as an author, visit her website at www.nancyisanders.com.
