Book Signing at Barnes & Noble!

I’m heading to Atlanta and will be doing a book signing at the Barnes & Noble at The Avenue this Sunday, August 4th, from 2 to 4:00pm. It's not much notice, but I’d love to see some of my Atlanta friends if you’re able to come!

THE WOOD WIFE: Illustrating a Contemporary Classic with Terri Windling and Mary Jane Begin

What a treat this was... Long time friend and amazing author/illustrator/editor/blogger Terri Windling joined our own Illustration Chair, Mary Jane Begin for a conversation about the artwork Mary Jane has been doing to illustrate Terri's modern day classic, The Wood Wife. Terri lives in Devon, England so the two zoomed the conversation that people from all over the world were able to enjoy. Happily, we recorded it and you can see it here! Click the image to watch on our KidLit Youtube channel.

Nancy Dahlstrom's!

Every summer, our faculty have a tradition of visiting the founder of the Hollins Visual Arts Center, Nancy Dahlstrom. She has a lovely home in Fincastle—an historic little town near Hollins. The garden is beautiful! I especially love her grove of Japanese Maples.

See the cat?

Her herbs attract all manner of birds and the most striking gold finches.
Nancy is technically retired, but stays busy in her gorgeous print studio. She loves showing us around.

Nancy is one of the most talented engravers and monoprinters I know, and a darend fine painter too. I've been in love with her iris painting for years. And look at that rose! Her patience is impressive, as is her process. Nancy is a true master at her craft!
     Dinner was delicious.And Rob Costello generously gave our annual group shot. From left to right back to front, here are Ellen, MJ, Ashley, Delia, Mitali, Me, Nancy, and Ruth. So fun!

Miscellaneous Moments of Joy

As I walk around campus I come across wonderful little moments of joy that make me so happy when I spot them. So, here are some miscellaneous moments. Maybe they'll make you smile too! For instance, I came across one of our students and one of our staff trying to sort out a sewing machine. For the closing of the Symposium and the Alumni Retreat we held a pot-luck party where we caught this fun photo of Mary Jane Begin, Me, Ruth Sanderson, and Ashley Wolff. Our summer semesters are so intense that we hold classes on July 4th. We held another pot-luck party that evening, or at least, that was the plan. Several students took the weekend to travel and visit family, so only about half the students were left. An enormous storm came through right before the party, so by the time the remaining students gathered, we only had popsicles, beer, and a bag of cookies for everyone to eat. Obviously, that wasn't going to be enough for dinner, but no restaurants were open. So, we headed down to the dining hall. A few folks brought more food and wine and it ended up being quite a good time after all, even if it wasn't what we expected at the outset! After following her career for so many years, I had such a lovely time getting to know Mitali Perkins better. We took a fun walk along the Greenway (a path that runs along the Roanoke River downtown). Mitali was enamoured by one of the sculptures in the sculpture garden and tried to strike the same pose. I'm sure I'll catch more of these wonderful moments and I look forward to sharing!

Lectures and Talks

Speaking engagements may not make the best photo ops, but they are exciting in person! And we've had some amazing speaking engagements already and we're not even to the half-way point of the semester yet!
     Author Ellen Kushner gave a kick-off keynote for the summer filled with song and folklore. It set a magical setting for our summer to begin with. Julie Benbassat gave a great talk introducing her gallery show opening in our auditorium in the Visual Arts Center.
The Museum and our program catered the event and everyone hung out to celebrate. Here are Ashley Wolff (with Rufus), Mary Jane Begin, Julie Benbassat, and Lisa Fraustino. Mitali Perkins gave a fabulous talk on "JUST MAKING: Tips for Compassionate Creatives?" to celebrate her forthcoming book. It was followed by a very popular book signing that sold out! Ruth Sanderson, former Co-Director of our program, gave a talk on Character Creation in celebration of her newest books. Stephanie R. Toliver gave a talk on “Afrofuturism’s Answer to Armageddon: Black Author's Speculating in the Afterlife of Slavery.” And Rob Costello gave a great talk on Horror in Queer Children's Lit. And that's not all! More to come!

Summer Semester Begins! The placing of the characters!

After ten months of preparing, it was so exciting to finally have everyone arrive on campus for our very busy summer semester! We begin our summers with a meet and greet pizza picnic party. Everyone was so thrilled to be back on our gorgeous Hollins campus, and to reconnect.
     One of our favorite traditions during our kick off party is the placing of the characters. These are our collection of about 60 children's book characters created by our own Ashley Wolff. Everyone picks their favorite to go place on campus... somewhere. Here's Lisa and Liz with Max and Madeline...
and Teresa with the very hungry caterpillar. We spend the rest of the summer discovering where they're all hiding—it's one of the things that makes our summer semesters so magical. (Here's everyone right before they went to put the characters around campus.)
Click the image to see it larger in a new window. And I was thrilled that this year, Ashley made one of my main character from Merbaby's Lullaby. Aren't they wonderful!? I'm tickled silly. So, the characters are scattered all over campus, the students are settled in, classes are running strong, and everyone is having a great time! Here we go!!!