Boston Public Library
Children's Writer-in-Residence Program

Associates of the Boston Public Library

The Associates of the Boston Public Library sponsors a Children's Writer-in-Residence program annually. The program is intended to:

A panel of judges is currently reviewing submissions for the 2013-2014 Children's Writer-in-Residence Program. The winner will be announced in August 2013. The selected applicant will receive a $20,000 stipend and office space at the BPL's Central Library in Copley Square. The applicant must work a minimum of 19 hours per week at the BPL during the nine-month residency (October 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.)

Please check back in early 2014 to download the 2014-2015 program guidelines and application. Projects eligible for this program are fiction, non-fiction, a script, or poetry, intended for children or young adults. Illustrations may be combined with any of these formats, but are not required. To be eligible, the applicant must be a US citizen and cannot have published more than three books to date.

Prior Winners

Hollis Shore

Hollis Shore, of Lancaster, MA, is the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s ninth Children's Writer-in-Residence, for the year 2012-2013. She is currently writing Saved – a story about a young artist on a search for the music within. (Read about the program's eight prior residents.)

Upon her selection, Ms. Shore said, “I keep thinking of Claudia and Jamie in From The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, running away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But this is better; this is a museum with books. I am filled with joy at the prospect of having the inestimable treasures of the Boston Public Library at my fingertips as I write and research my new novel, Saved. The Children’s Writer-in-Residence Program is unique in the support it offers emerging writers, and it is a great honor to be selected. My undying thanks go out to the Associates of the Boston Public Library for this once in a lifetime opportunity. And I promise not to hide under my desk after closing…”

Ms. Shore earned a B.A. in English at the University of Vermont and a MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults at Vermont College. Her first novel, The Curve of the World, a historical story set in a small Vermont town at the end of World War II, won a PEN/New England Discovery award.

Two of the program’s prior residents have recently published books. In March 2012, the Associates’ very first author, Hannah (Rodgers) Barnaby, published the book that she wrote during her BPL residency, Wonder Show. In addition, Anna Staniszewski’s debut novel, My Very UnFairy Tale Life, was published in November 2011, and the sequel, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail, was published in March 2013.

 

For further information about the Children's Writer-in-Residence Program, the 2012-13 recipient, or about the Associates of the Boston Public Library, please contact the Associates' Office at 617-536-3886 or associates@bpl.org.

Associates of the Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Phone: 617-536-3886
associates@bpl.org