Past Updates
HAPPY SPRING!
In the meantime, visit the "News" page on this site and enjoy the thorough and fascinating writing of Grazyna J. Kozaczka, an English professor at New York's Cazenovia College whose paper "The Invention of Ethnicity and Gender in Suzanne Strempek Shea's Fiction" is used with gratitude to both her and to The Polish Review (www.piasa.org/polishreview.html), which published this piece in its Vol. XLVIII, No. 3, 2003.
After you're finished reading, take a chance to win signed copies of all seven of my books in a raffle to benefit Top Floor Learning at Palmer Public Library here in my home town. It's part of the annual and cool basket raffle, and proceeds will benefit learners enrolled in the adult literacy programs: reading/writing, GED preparation, English as a second language, citizenship perparation. Tickets are $2 each or a book of six for $10. Write Top Floor Learning, Palmer Public Library, 1455 North Main St., Palmer, MA 01069
Or do some more good by supporting the Women's Partnership's annual scholarship fundraiser while meeting authors, sampling food and wine, and checking out fancy cars April 26 in West Springfield, Mass.
The Women's Partnership, a division of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc., will host its annual scholarship fundraising event, Meet the Authors, that night from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Fathers & Sons auto showroom, 989 Memorial Drive, West Springfield, Mass.
Eleven bestselling Massachusetts authors will be on hand to sign their books, which will be sold by Edwards Books. The wine tasting will be provided by Table & Vine, with area restaurants The Federal, Table 9, Horizons, Hofbrauhaus, and Storrowton Tavern providing samples of their best dishes. Tickets are $50 per person and may be obtained from Ellen Albano, at 413-543-8000, extension 15.
Women's Partnership Scholarships are open to women who have had their educational goals interrupted and are currently trying to re-enter a higher education institution. Applicants must be over 25 years old, live in Hampden or Hampshire County, with community involvement to be considered. Meet the Authors is the event of the year to raise funds for Women's Partnership scholarships.
I'll be there, along with these ten authors:
Leigh Montville - A former sports columnist for the Boston Globe and former senior writer at Sports illustrated, Montville is the author of the bestselling At the Altar of Speed - The Death of Dale Earnhardt; Ted Williams, the Biography of An American Hero; and Why Not Us: The 86-Year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans From Unparalleled Suffering To The Promised Land Of the 2004 World Series. He lives with his family in the same area code as Fenway Park.Julius Lester - Born in 1939 and raised in the Midwest and the South, Lester received his bachelor of arts degree in English from Fisk University in 1960. Since 1968, he has published twenty-five books - seven nonfiction, fifteen children's books, one book of poetry, and two novels. Among the honors accorded his children's books are the Newbery Honor Medal (To Be A Slave), National Book Award Finalist (Long Journey Home), and Caldecott Honor and The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (John Henry). He lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, Milan, and 15,000 books (give or take).
Jean Stone - Jean Stone is the author of twelve novels from Bantam Books. Categorized as "commercial women's fiction", Stone's books focus on the lives, the loves, and friendships of contemporary women. Her latest releases to mass market bookstores, Once Upon a Bride and Twice Upon a Wedding, the first and second titles in the "Second Chances" series, are also being featured by Doubleday Book Club. The stories are set in a fictitious town in the Berkshires. Several of Stone's books have been on the USA Today Bestseller List and have been reprinted in many foreign languages. A West Springfield native and a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, Stone now lives in Amherst. She is currently working on two more books in the Second Chances series.
Her website is www.jeanstone.netKevin O'Hara - Twenty-five years ago, O'Hara walked the perimeter of Ireland with donkey and cart. The 1,700-mile eight-month journey is chronicled in his wonderful memoir "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims." That title was the designation given him by an aged monk he encountered on the way and underlines the donkey's role in traditional rural Ireland, where most farmers could aspire to the sturdy, small beast, but never to a horse. O'Hara, who has worked for the past 20 years as a psychiatric nurse at Berkshire Medical Center, says that although he had faithfully kept a journal along the way, actually writing the book was sometimes a struggle. He persevered, he said, finally to return the courtesy and hospitality he had so gratefully received. His website is www.kevin-ohara.com
Bob Flaherty - Set in an Irish working-class Boston suburb, Flaherty's acclaimed first novel, "Puff," follows soon-to-be-orphaned brothers posing as rescue personnel as they attempt to steer their dilapidated van through insurmountable snow all to score a bag of pot. Born and raised in Boston and its surrounding towns, Flaherty now lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, Annemarie, with whom he operates a birthday party business. They have three sons. Bob has, at various times, been an actor, a director, a cartoonist, a sportscaster, a talk show host, a tour guide, a storyteller, a disabled bus driver, a master of ceremonies, a hanger of gutters, a singer of national anthems and a baseball coach.
Jane Yolen - An author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction, including Owl Moon, Devil's Arithmetic, and How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? Jane Yolen is also a poet, a teacher of writing and literature, and a reviewer of children's literature. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century. Her books and stories have won the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award. Her website is www.janeyolen.com
Rich Michelson - A prize-winning poet whose first book, Tap Dancing for the Relatives, was praised by Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel as "deeply moving," Michelson also writes children's books including Too Young for Yiddish and Ten Times Better. He reviews children's books for the New York Times Book Review, is the Curator of Exhibitions at The National Yiddish Book Center and is the owner of R. Michelson Galleries in Amherst and Northampton. His website is www.RMichelson.com
Heidi Stemple - She never wanted to be a writer like her mother, Jane Yolen, so, after college, Heidi Stemple became a probation/parole officer and then a private investigator. But, after becoming a stay at home mom, she gave in and started writing, first with her mother and then alone as well. For the last 18 years, she and Yolen have lived far apart, so have written during visits or through cyberspace. Stemple now lives in her hometown of Hatfield, and needs only to yell into the next room since her mother is being nice enough to share her office. Stemple is working on her thirteenth and fourteenth books. Her website is www.heidistemple.net
Ruth Sanderson - A graduate of the Paier College of Art in Hamden, Conn., Sanderson has illustrated books for children of all ages, from Golden Books to young adult books, and classics such as Heidi and The Secret Garden. Since 1989 she has retold and illustrated many fairytales, including The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Papa Gatto, The Crystal Mountain, and The Golden Mare. Her paintings have been included in exhibitions around the country, including the Norman Rockwell Museum. Her work has appeared on collector's plates, greeting cards, fantasy book covers, and in magazine and advertising venues. A resident of Western Massachusetts, she is married and has two daughters, and her favorite hobby is horseback riding. Her website is www.ruthsanderson.com
Corinne Demas - Demas is the award-winning author of two story collections, two novels, a memoir (Eleven Stories High: Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948-1968) and numerous children's books. She is professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor of The Massachusetts Review. Her most recent publications are Saying Goodbye to Lulu, a Booklist Editor's Choice for 2004 picture book, and The Great American Short Story, From Hawthorne to Hemingway, which she edited. Her website is www.corinnedemas.com
Thanks and happy reading!
Suzanne