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

Associates of the Boston Public Library

The Associates of the Boston Public Library Announces Seventh Children’s Writer-in-Residence

Elaine DimopoulosBoston, MA – June 7, 2010 – The Associates of the Boston Public Library is pleased to announce the selection of its seventh Children's Writer-in-Residence Fellowship winner for the year 2010-2011. The award goes to Elaine Dimopoulos of Arlington, Massachusetts. Ms. Dimopoulos was chosen unanimously from 81 applicants.

“I am absolutely thrilled to serve as the Boston Public Library Children's Writer-in-Residence,” said Ms. Dimopoulos. “The inaugural writer-in-residence, Hannah Rodgers Barnaby, was my first writing mentor at Simmons, so I have known for years how prestigious the fellowship is. It is an honor to have been selected; I haven't stopped celebrating since I heard the news. My work-in-progress, ECO-CHIC, monopolizes my thoughts these days, and I'm so grateful to have the time, space, resources, and funds to complete it.”

Ms. Dimopoulos is a graduate of Yale, Columbia, and, most recently, Simmons College, where she earned an M.F.A. in Writing for Children. She has taught English at a New England boarding school, an all-boys school in New York City, and an all-girls school in Pennsylvania. She is currently an instructor of children's literature at Boston University. In 2008, she received an Emerging Artist Grant from the Saint Botolph Club Foundation. A member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, she writes with a Needham-based SCBWI critique group. She lives in Arlington with her husband, John Evans, and her two cats, Harry and Hermione.

The residency at the Boston Public Library will start in September of 2010 and the Associates will welcome the winner with a reception in early fall. Created to provide an emerging children's writer with the financial support and privacy needed to complete one literary work within a nine-month period, the fellowship will provide Ms. Dimopoulos with a "room of her own" at the Central Library in Copley Square, plus a $20,000 stipend.

"The Children's Writer-in-Residence Fellowship is cause for celebration for several reasons," noted Associates Board Chair Vivian Spiro. "First, it will provide an exciting new literary talent with the support and public exposure necessary for success; and second, it marks a promising new stage in the evolution of the Associates of the Boston Public Library as an organization. Through the Children's Writer-in-Residence Program, the Associates will visibly further its mission of supporting the Boston Public Library and promoting the importance of writers, books, and reading in our culture."

Ms. Spiro added that to the best of her knowledge, the Associates' stipend is one of the largest of its kind offered in the U.S. The fellowship is funded by an anonymous gift.

To see prior recipients, please click here.

For further information about the Children's Writer-in-Residence Program or about the Associates, 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
Fax: 617-536-3813
e-mail: associates@bpl.org