The Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street College is thrilled to announce that Emma Otheguy, Ph.D. will be our 5th annual Dorothy Carter Writer-in-Residence!
Emma will work with the 9/10s classrooms on creative writing in April of 2019. Emma is the author of Marti’s Song for Freedom: Martí y sus versos por la libertad (Lee & Low 2017) about Cuban poet and national hero José Martí. Martí’s Song for Freedom received five starred reviews, from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness. Martí received the International Literacy Association’s 2018 Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in Intermediate Nonfiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, and the Bank Street College of Education.
Emma’s other work includes, Pope Francis: Builder of Bridges (Bloomsbury 2018). Her middle-grade novel Silver Meadows Summer (Alfred A. Knopf) will be published in 2019.
Emma attended Swarthmore College, where she studied children’s literature with Donna Jo Napoli and graduated with Honors. Later, she worked in farm-based education, at a children’s bookstore, and as an elementary school Spanish teacher. Emma holds a Ph.D. in History at New York University, focusing on Spain and colonial Latin America. Emma has held fellowships and grants from the American Historical Association, the Council of Library and Information Resources, and Humanities New York.
The Writer-in-Residence program is named in honor of Dorothy Carter, Bank Street’s first African American faculty member, writer of highly acclaimed children’s books, chair of the Bank Street Writers Lab and Broadway actress. We lost Dorothy in 2012 but continue to celebrate her contributions to children’s literature through the Writer-in-Residence program.
In 2015 Newbery medalist Kwame Alexander, author of The Crossover inaugurated the program and focused on poetry writing. In 2016 Newbery Honor medalist Adam Gidwitz taught creative writing. In 2017, Crystal Kite winner, Kat Yeh, On the Way to BEA focused on short story writing. In 2018, Renée Watson, Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winner, author of Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury) taught poetry.
Follow the link for more information about the Writer-in-Residence program.
You can make a donation to the Dorothy Carter Writer-in-Residence fund here