| Illustrated Picture Books · Easy Readers · Southwestern Flavor |
| ABOUT OUR AUTHORS
ALAN ARKIN and JON RICHARDS Best known for his work in film and television, Alan Arkin has found time to write several books for children - Cosmo - A Cautionary Tale is the latest. The Lemming Condition - published in 1976 - was chosen by the Booksellers of America to be placed in The White House Library. His works have been translated into many languages and read all over the world. Other children's books by Alan Arkin: JON RICHARDS has been doing editorial cartoons and movie reviews in Santa Fe, NM, since the late 1980s. He has published half a dozen novels, and has also worked as a journalist, screenwriter, film translator, illustrator, and actor. His illustrations have brought Cosmo to life in all his quirky humanity. TERRY AVERY
One of the first Azro Press author/illustrators, Terry lived in the Rocky Mountain Southwest for 44 years.
While she was staying at Chaco Canyon, she looked up at the full moon and was amazed to see not the Man in the Moon but a Rabbit in the Moon and not just a cute little bunny rabbit but a lanky jackrabbit with long, wind-swept ears who was the inspiration for her first book, Moon Rabbit Builds A Fine House.
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MARCY HELLER Marcy Heller was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Maryland and in California. As a child, she always wanted to become a writer. Her mother was a school librarian and brought home stacks and stacks of books for her to read. And, when she wasn’t roaming the farms and woods of then-rural Maryland, that’s exactly what she did. Her father was a research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service and taught Heller how to fly at a young age. Her love of flying and the sky continues to this day. She has a B.F.A. in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an M.F.A. in Painting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her career has been in publishing from the age of twenty-two. She was a scholarly book designer at the University of North Carolina Press and Assistant Production and Design Manager at Stanford University Press. She learned pop-up book design and production and now focuses on designing children’s books. Somewhere along the way, she returned to her original love of writing and began to write children’s books. She had been strongly supported in this goal as a college student by her mentor, Dr. Karem Monsour. She has published Just You and Me, Grandpa with Reader’s Digest Books for Children in 1994, Loco Dog and the Dust Devil in the Railyard in 2008, and now in 2010, Paloma and the Dust Devil at the Balloon Fiesta. Heller has lived in Santa Fe for twenty-four years with her husband and is the mother of two children. The landscapes and stories of New Mexico have captivated her for all of these years and continue to do so.
NANCY POES Nancy Poes was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1951 and received a B.A. in History from the University of California Berkeley in 1973. She studied illustration at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Since 2006, she has lived and painted in Santa Fe after twenty years in Hawaii and extensive time in Portugal. In 2002 and 2004 she had exhibitions in the seaside town of Cascais, Portugal. Poes has exhibited at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and at the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu as well as in many galleries. Poes is represented by the Fine Art Associates in Honolulu and in Santa Fe, her paintings hang in The Infinite Grace Gallery. Her work is part of many international public, corporate, and private collections. Painting plein-aire (out-of-doors) is a favorite method of Poes' and she has painted in many parts of the country. The illustrations for Loco Dog and the Dust Devil in the Railyard Paloma and the Dust Devil at the Balloon Festival are done in gouache on board and were created in a studio shared with the author, Marcy Heller. These books have become a very happy collaborative effort. Poes has become deeply attached to the inspirational beauty of New Mexico.
NICOLE BLAU Nicole lived in Europe for many years, most recently Denmark and Italy. Recently, she returned to the States where she was born. Her first memories of TV are Soupy Sales and the McCarthy hearings. When she was 3 years old, someone asked her what she was going to be when she grew up. She promptly answered, "I'm going to be an artist." And so she is. She's particularly fond of rabbits as you will see when you read the book she illustrated, Whatcha Doing?
BARBARA MAYFIELD Barbara Mayfield was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a professional actress, comedienne, puppeteer, and artist. Miss Mayfield loves to dance the two-step, waltz, and polka, and is taking ukulele lessons. The Magical Mrs. Iptweet and Me is her first novel.
JODY ALPERS and CELESTE JOHNSON have lived in Roswell, New Mexico for many years. They have collaborated on several books. T is for Tortilla is a new edition of a book they published a while ago. Jody taught with the Roswell Independent School District for 28 years. Fifteen of the years were in kindergarten with the other years being various grade levels at the elementary level. The majority of her teaching was at Washington Avenue elementary school. That is where she was teaching kindergarten when she wrote the book. She was also the director of the RISD Parkview Preschool my last 3 years. She has her Masters in Elementary Education with a minor in English from Eastern New Mexico University. The book has done well in grades K-4 especially lending itself to the New Mexico history classes required in some fourth grades. Most elementary teachers do some type of New Mexico unit each year.
SID HAUSMAN has lived in New Mexico for more than 35 years. An illustrator and western music performer, Sid has been a resident artist with the New Mexico Arts Division teaching songwriting at Navajo and pueblo schools. He currently gives workshops in public and private schools throughout the Southwest and will usually have the kids illustrate their
visual interpretations of the songs they write.
One Bullfrog was written during Sid„s residency at the Beklabito Day School on the Navajo reservation near Shiprock, New Mexico. Sid asked these first graders to choose their favorite animal from the area where they lived. The animals were written down and organized by size. They decided to see how many they could get on a log and came up with fifty before the log broke. Aside from being a fun project, ONE BULLFROG has become one of Sid„s most requested children„s song.
His newly published book is Cactus Critter Bash.
JAENET GUGGENHEIM
SUANA VERELST was born in Antwerp (Belgium) and grew up in a town called
Kortrijk, close to the French border in Belgium. She is the eldest of four. In 1984, she emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in Canada. After receiving degrees at Concordia University in fine arts and art history and a degree in graphic design at Dawson College in Montreal and receiving some awards for her work, she realized that she wanted to combine her love for drawing, painting, sculpting, etching, bookmaking and experimenting with materials and textures into one.
Since 2001, she works as an illustrator and graphic designer. She has been working with children's book related publishers in Quebec, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Next Week When I'm Big is her first US based published work.
