Date: May 20-23, 2004
Begins Thursday at 6:00 P.M. with dinner; ends Sunday with lunch.

Designed For: The workshop is designed for children's writers interested in learning to research and write about the lives of interesting people.

Maximum Capacity: 14 participants

CLICK HERE FOR PRE-WORKSHOP ASSIGMENT

What does it take to tell somebody’s story? How can you bring a person from the past to life? How can you offer a credible and original portrait of someone living today?

In this workshop, attendees will learn the art of biography—for a magazine article, or a book. They will delve deep into research techniques (including interviewing), learn about the art of writing and rewriting, and study published biographies—adult and children. There will be a writing assignment and an extensive critique session.

Guest Faculty—James Cross Giblin and Dianne Hess—will discuss the secrets of writing for this important genre.

Sue Macy
Sue Macy is an author and editor with more than twenty-five years of experience producing award-winning books and magazines for children and young adults. A graduate of Princeton University, Sue spent much of her early career at Scholastic Inc. as an editor and editorial director in the company’s Classroom Magazine division. She also served as editor in chief of the best-selling Scholastic Children’s Dictionary (1996).

Born in New York City, Sue grew up in Clifton, New Jersey, and currently lives in Englewood, New Jersey. She is a frequent speaker about writing, women’s history, and women’s sports. Sue is a former columnist for OxygenSports.com, a Web site of Oxygen Media, and was an advisor and contributor to Game Face, a museum exhibit and book project focusing on girls and women in sports. Sue has written seven books, including Bull’s-Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley (2001) and Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics (2004), both for National Geographic. Her photobiography of journalist Nellie Bly is due out in 2005.

More extensive background on Sue appears in Volume 134 of the reference series Something About the Author and on Sue’s Web site, www.suemacy.com.

Jennifer Emmett
Jennifer Emmett is a children’s book editor at the National Geographic Society, where she’s worked since 1995. She has edited more than forty books for children, including five books in National Geographic’s popular photobiography series. Some of her recent titles include Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison, which won the James Madison honor award; 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, which received three starred reviews; Our Country’s Presidents; and With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote. Before editing, Jennifer was a researcher for the children’s television program Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? for two seasons. While earning her M.A. in English Literature from Boston College, she taught English composition and interned at Little, Brown, & Co. in their children’s book department. She’s a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and daughter.

Jennifer has worked with Sue Macy on two books to date: Bull’s-Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley, which was named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Notable Book, and Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics.