Saturday, May 16, 2009
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Library

Author/Illustrator Bios

Ann Bowen was inspired to write I Loved You Before Your Were Born while she waited for and wondered about her first grandchild. She has been a teacher for twenty-five years, working with both hearing-impaired and hearing children, and was chosen as the 1996-1997 Utah Language Arts Teacher of the Year. Ms. Bowen is passionate about reading and enjoys sharing her love of literature and beautiful language with her students. She has two sons and one granddaughter and lives with her husband in Ogden, Utah.

Ann Cannon (A.E. Cannon) is an award-winning writer of fiction for children and young adults. She is also a newspaper columnist, creative writing teacher and the mother of five sons. Her first young adult novel, Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night, won the Delacorte Press Prize for an outstanding first young adult novel. Since then, she has published a number of books, including a collection of her newspaper columns. Subsequent Young Adult novels have been named to the American Library Association’s Best Books lists, while her weekly column in the Deseret News has found a wide on-line readership.

Kristyn Crow’s picture books employ rhythm, rhymes, and repetition to make reading a fun experience for kids of all ages. Her first book, COOL DADDY RAT, illustrated by Mike Lester and published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, has received starred reviews from both Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal. Her second book, BEDTIME AT THE SWAMP, was released in the summer of 2008. Her third book, THE MIDDLE CHILD BLUES, will be released fall of 2009. Kristyn is the mother of seven musical and artistic children and is married to a police officer who doubles as a mad scientist/inventor.
James Dashner was born and raised in Georgia. He grew up a southerner, with five brothers and sisters, and loved every minute of it. Although he now currently resides in Utah, he will always be a southerner at heart. After high school, James attended Brigham Young University; where he went on to receive a Masters Degree in Accounting. He also took a couple of years off and served a mission in Japan. Since graduation, he has received his CPA, worked for a major audit firm, and now currently works as a financial analyst. James has been married for five years, to Lynette Anderson from West Valley City, Utah. He has two children, Wesley and Bryson. It’s a cliché, but they really are the joy of his life. James also enjoys movies, reading, going to the theater, and, above all else, sports.
Ann Dee Ellis’s first book This is What I Did: received three starred reviews and was listed on Voice of Youth Advocates - 2007 Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers List, American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults for 2007 and was a 2008 International Reading Association honor book. Her second book, Everything Is Fine, was released in March 2009. Ann Dee lives in Utah with her husband and two sons. Besides writing, she enjoys running, eating and playing.

Guy Francis began illustrating at the age of 9. His first projects included his 4th grade bulletin board and numerous cartoon characters commissioned by his friends for 25 cents. It wasn’t until high school that he realized a person could make a living being an artist, and while attending Brigham Young University he got his first children’s picture book job illustrating Showdown at Slickrock by Pat Bagley. Since then he has published a variety of work including book covers, children’s games, early chapter books and picture books. He is thrilled to be making a living doing what he loves.
Jessica Day George earned a BA in Humanities/Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University where she enjoyed classes in Pottery and Old Norse, and dutifully forced herself to take Algebra and Biology. She can speak Norwegian and German, read Old Norse, knit her own socks and play the viola and the piano. Originally from Idaho, she now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband, their young son, and a five pound Maltese named Pippin. In 2007 her genius was realized when her first book, Dragon Slippers came out from Bloomsbury USA.
Sharlee Glenn grew up on a farm in northeastern Utah with six brothers and sisters, a throng of cousins, and a whole menagerie of animals. After high school, she moved to the big city of Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University where she earned a BA and then an MA in Humanities with a dual emphasis in English and Art History. She taught at BYU for several years before giving up academia for the writing life. She has published essays, short stories, and poetry for adults, but her true love is writing for children. Sharlee lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with her lovely husband, James, and their five brilliant children.

Nathan Hale is a children’s illustrator with a background in scientific and natural history illustration. He worked for several years in museum display, as a mural and diorama painter. He has murals in museums as far away as the Kitakyushu Science Museum in Japan. Nathan has written and illustrated two books: The Devil You Know and Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School. He is the illustrator Scholastic picked when they decided to repackage the Bailey School Kids books, a series over 70 volumes long. Nathan lives in Utah with his wife and two kids. He has an enormous LEGO collection.

 

Dean Hale - Little is known about Dean Hale, his past so shrouded in mystery many speculate that he has something heinous to hide. Three facts can be confirmed: 1. He is married to Shannon Hale; 2. They've co-authored two books and two children; 3. He enjoys ham.

 
Shannon Halestarted writing books at age ten and never stopped, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing. After nineteen years of writing and dozens of rejections, she published her first book, The Goose Girl, an ALA Teens’ Top Ten. Enna Burning and River of Secrets are companion books to Goose. She also has two standalone books for young readers – Book of a Thousand Days, a CYBILS award winner, and Princess Academy, a Newbery Honor Book and NY Times best seller. Austenland, a romantic comedy, was her first book for adults. She recently co-wrote Rapunzel’s Revenge with her husband, Dean, and has two books, The Actor and the Housewife and Forest Born, coming out later this year. She resides in Salt Lake City with her husband, two kids, and their pet, a small, plastic pig.
Mette Ivie Harrison lives in Utah with her husband and five children. She comes from a family of 11, so her family seems much more manageable to her. She writes during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning, whenever she gets a chance. She loves to write because she loves to read. When she was a child, she often held a book in her hands and read while walking to school or during recess. She loves to teach writing, also. She taught at a university for many years before she could spend more time writing, but she still likes to go to schools and help young writers discover the joy of creating their own world.

Sydney Salter Husseman held a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer, including her brief stint delivering pies and flowers, wrecking vans, and destroying wedding cakes in Reno, Nevada. Sydney now lives in Utah with her husband, two daughters, two cats, two dogs, and two tortoises. She loves reading, writing, traveling, and, of course, baking and decorating cakes (but not driving them anywhere).
Alvina Kwong was born in Hawaii and moved to Southern California where she grew up and enjoyed the beautiful weather and art around her. She has loved drawing and painting since she could hold a pencil. She graduated from Brigham Young University in Illustration and received 2 awards for the Student Show. Her first children's book "My Imagination" has won the Mom's Choice Award 2008 and was a finalist for Foreword Magazine. Alvina lives in Utah with her husband and 3-year old daughter, and they all miss the big blue ocean.
Sherry Meidell has spent years researching childhood. First, having spent many years as a child followed up by intensive research on the characteristics of boys, five boys to be specific. Her experiences include iguanas in the uppermost reaches of her closet and Rosey Red Feeder Fish in the family bath tub. She had the heart of an artist as soon as she could wrap her stubby fingers around a fat crayon. Now she specializes in brushes and watercolor with pencil for detail. She takes great joy in the world of children’s book illustration. Sherry has illustrated many books. She is a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Utah Watercolor Society.
Carla Morris was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. She holds a BA in Humanities from BYU, and a MLS from BYU. Carla was the first reference librarian at Provo City Library from 1979-1990. She was hired as the Children’s Services Manager in 1991. Carla served on the Caldecott 2004 Committee. She is the author of The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians, illustrated by Brad Sneed, published by Peachtree Press.

Brandon Mull resides in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his wife and three children. He spent two years living in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile where he learned Spanish and juggling. He once won a pudding eating contest in the park behind his grandma’s house, earning a gold medal. Brandon is the author of the New York Times bestselling Fablehaven series and The Candy Shop War.
Aprilynne Pike has been spinning faerie stories since she was a child with a hyper-active imagination. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found at the gym; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne currently lives with her husband and three kids in Utah, and dreams of warmer climates. Her first novel, Wings, was published in 2009 and is the first in a four book series.
Louise Plummer Louise Plummer lives in Provo, Utah, where she teaches at Brigham Young University. She and her husband, Tom, have four sons: Jonathon, Edmund, Charles, and Samuel. She holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota. Her first novel, The Romantic Obsessions and Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier, and her second, My name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent, were published by Delacorte Press. Thoughts of a Grasshopper was her first book with Deseret Book.
Maryn Roos’s life thus far, has been filled with many exciting adventures. She has been chased by Russian black marketeers through the underground streets of Kiev. A Wisconsin State Capital Security Guard told her that had he a grenade; she would blow up quite nicely. Somewhere amidst this chaos, she managed to graduate from Brigham Young University in 1995 with a Bachelor's of Fine Art Degree in Illustration, magna cum laude. Having grown weary of her Utah internment, Maryn returned to her native Northern California to work at Lucas Learning Ltd. As a Lead Artist, she contributed to creating educational software for CD-Rom's and the Internet, and learned more about Wookiees than anyone should ever be allowed to know. After narrowly escaping being crushed by a gigantic Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and for reasons still unclear to herself, she relocated to the Beehive State. Meandering about the greater Utah Valley, she now enjoys spending her time as a freelance illustrator and avoiding State Capital Security Guards.
Brandon Sanderson is an American fantasy author. A Nebraska native, he currently resides in Provo, Utah. He earned his Master’s degree in Creative Writing in 2005 from Brigham Young University. He has been nominated twice for the John W. Campbell Award. Sanderson’s writing is noteworthy for its epic fantasy tone, unique settings, precision magic systems, and variety of characters.
J. Scott Savage J. Scott Savage has been creating stories for as long as he can remember. He lives at the mouth of a canyon where morning and evening winds keep the air clear and blue—along with blowing over patio tables, trees, basketball stands, and the occasional small child. He has a wonderful wife who has stuck with him for more than twenty years, four great children, a spastic border collie, and possibly three or four fish. (The pond is still frozen, so he isn’t quite sure.) Scott has held too many jobs to count, including: a mall Santa, French chef, CEO of a dot com, plumber, radio station talk show host, and the guy who sits in the little photo developing booth. He has completed one marathon and hopes to complete another when the memories finally fade away. He loves reading, writing, camping, playing games with his family, and especially hearing from and meeting his readers.
Will Terry studied illustration at BYU, developing his interests and skills in drawing and painting. In 1992, he moved to Maryland in search of freelance assignments and within 3 months was working full-time as an illustrator. His work ahs appeared in national advertisements for Sprint, Pizza Hut, M&M Mars, Fed Ex, MasterCard and Citibank and in such publication as Time, Money, Wall Street Journal, Mac World, Arizona Highways, Seventeen and Better Homes and Gardens. His work has also been accepted into The Society of Illustrators. He has completed assignments for Scholastic, Random House, Holt Rinehart and Winston, Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, and Hooked on Ph9onics. Will is currently working on a picture book for Rising Moon, The Treasure of Ghostwood Gully.
Wendy Toliver earned her BA in Speech Communication/Broadcast from Colorado State University. She’s explored a variety of jobs, from impersonating Marilyn Monroe for singing telegrams to impersonating a computer geek at an ad agency. Now she calls Eden, Utah home and lives with her husband, three little boys, two dogs, cat, crab, and an occasional m
When not working on her next novel, Wendy enjoys reading, skiing, acting, traveling, volunteering, and shooting hoops. Though she’s never been mistaken for a Siren, she has been mistaken for the Wendy’s hamburger girl.
Rick Walton was born in Provo, Utah, and has lived in a wide range of exotic places – from Draper, to Sandy, to Kearns, to Springville. He now lives, once again in Provo, with his wife and five kids. He is the author of over 75 books.
Carol Lynch Williams is a two-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition and is the author of several books for children, including Kelly and Me, The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson, If I Forget, You Remember, and her latest book The Chosen One.
Brad Wilcox was born in Provo, UT, but has lived all over the world including Ethiopia, Chile, and New Zealand. He currently lives in Provo with his wife, Debi, and their four children. He taught sixth grade before joining the faculty at BYU where he is currently an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education. He teaches graduate courses in literacy and children’s literature. He loves working with youth programs held at BYU and visiting schools across the country to help promote literacy. Some of his favorite things are reading, writing, teaching, traveling, Peanut M&M’s and pepperoni pizza. He realizes that doesn’t sound too healthy so he is really trying hard to learn to love salads. He also loves music and usually plays it in the car with the volume turned way up.