Hi!
I’m super excited to bring my interview with author Jane Yolen to you today. Jane is 82 years young, has published over 400 books, and in my book, she is a true storyteller and an inspiration to writers of all stages.
Enjoy!
Here’s Jane Yolen’s full bio:
Beloved children's book author Jane Yolen has been writing and publishing since the early sixties when she sold her first book (about women pirates) on her twenty-second birthday. But she began her publishing career as a journalist (short-lived) and as an editor (longer-lived) for Knopf and Harcourt in the children’s department.
She is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, MA, with an Med (master of education) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has six honorary doctorates for her body of work: Smith College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Keene State College, College of Our Lady of the Elms, Westfield State University, and Bay Path College.
She was the first Western Massachusetts author to win a Public Radio’s Arts & Entertainment Award, and the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture at St. Andrews University in Scotland in a series that began in 1927. She has won awards from both the Jewish Book Council and the Catholic Book Council, making her very ecumenical.
Jane was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America for two years, and on the board of the Society of Children’s Book Writers for forty-five years.
Her books and stories have won three World Fantasy Awards, two Nebulas, three Mythopoeic Awards, two Christopher Medals, three SCBWI awards, the Massachusetts Book Center award, two Golden Kite awards, and a Caldecott Medal. She was nominated in 2020 for the Astrid Lindgren Award, plus many others. Her award from the Boston Science Fiction Association set her good coat on fire which she takes as a lesson about the dangers of awards.
Yolen lives in Western Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.
Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente