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

Associates of the Boston Public Library

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is pleased to announce the 2012-2013 Children's Writer-in-Residence winner

Hollis Shore, of Lancaster, MA, has been selected as the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s ninth Children's Writer-in-Residence, for the year 2012-2013. She will spend her residency writing Saved – a story about a young artist on a search for the music within. 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 residency will provide Ms. Shore with a "room of her own" in the BPL Central Library, plus a $20,000 stipend. The residency runs from September 2012 through May 2013.


Ms. Shore states, “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.

Saved was chosen in a blind evaluation process by a panel of nine judges from the world of children's literature, including award-winning authors, children's book editors, and librarians.

The Associates is also pleased to announce that two of our prior Children’s Writer-in-Residences 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, is scheduled to be released in March 2013. Read about the program's prior eight Childrens Writers-in-Residence.

The 2013-2014 program guidelines and application will be posted in early 2013.

The Children's Writer-in-Residence program is intended to:

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