Fred Wynn, Author at Hudson Childrens Book Festival

Leno, Katrina

Katrina Leno was born on the East Coast and currently lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels: Sometime in Summer, Horrid, You Must Not Miss, Summer of Salt, Everything All at Once, The Lost & Found, and The Half Life of Molly Pierce. Her eighth book, and her first for middle grade readers, comes out in June 2023 and is called The Umbrella Maker’s Son. You can visit her online at Katrinaleno.com

Awards
– Horrid was featured in OwlCrate’s September 2020 box
– You Must Not Miss received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist
– Summer of Salt received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal and is routinely featured on LGBTQI+ book lists

3 Fun Facts

1. Moving to Los Angeles nine years ago gave me a newfound appreciation for the rain. My upcoming middle grade book, The Umbrella Maker’s Son, is a love letter to those dark, gray days I love so much.
2. I collect fountain pens and own a truly ridiculous amount of notebooks, rubber stamps, washi tape, and journaling supplies.
3. My favorite movie of all time is Practical Magic. It was a big inspiration for Summer of Salt! I can genuinely watch it every single day forever and never get sick of it.

Stark, Hannah

Stark, Hannah

Hannah Stark is an author and public school teacher in New York City. She loves teachings kids to write, as well as, making and sharing resources with fellow educators. Hannah was inspired to write her debut book, TRUCKER AND TRAIN, while playing with her son. When not writing or teaching, she can be found taking road trips and train rides to unfamiliar places. www.hannahcarinastark.com

Amazon Editor’s Pick August 2019
Participant and author reader at Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival and Brooklyn Museum of Art Children’s Book Fair 2019

3 Fun Facts

1. I’ve never driven a truck or a train but I used to drive taxi cabs.
2. When I was a kid I was a sock model.
3. I played soccer for 30 years.

Stephens, Dr. Cynthia

Dr. Cynthia Stephens, a recent Hudson resident, earned a doctorate in Deafness Rehabilitation from New York University, and worked as a Speech and Language Pathologist for NYS, as well as various early childhood education settings in NYC. She studied and performed with dance greats such as Shawneequa Baker-Scott, Chuck Davis, LaRoque Bey, and the esteemed Babatunde Olatunji. Cynthia founded The Hear Me Now Project, Inc., an arts program for youth with disabilities, based in Bridgehampton, N.Y. A career in playwriting developed from her work with the children. Since then, Dr. Stephens has expanded her authorship to children’s fiction. www.sacredgroundproductions.com

I received the (2004) Professional of the Year award from the International Association of Black Women in Business, for my work in the arts.

I was the recipient of the (2012) Lab Award from the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center for my play titled “Painted Red”, which chronicles the life of Henrietta Lacks, the woman from whom the first immortal human cell line was taken.

3 Fun Facts

1. I began my artistic life as a dancer and traveled the country with several African and Afro-Caribbean dance companies.
2. After earning a Ph.D., I began a cultural program for students with disabilities on the east end of Long Island.
3. After retiring from my work with the New York State Office of Developmental Disabilities, I realized a dream and became a playwright (with two off-Broadway performances) and author of 3 children’s books-soon to be 5!

Thermes, Jennifer

Thermes, Jennifer

JENNIFER THERMES is a map illustrator and the award-winning author and illustrator of many books for children, including her most recent picture book, Horse Power: How Horses Changed the World (Abrams, 2021). Jennifer loves to weave maps throughout her stories in order to give readers a sense of geography and place. She is fascinated by the big picture of history and how it connects the past with our lives today. www.jenniferthermes.com

Awards
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Award Honor Book, starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Shelf Awareness.

3 Fun Facts

1. I loved to draw as a kid, but mostly only drew horses!
2. I adore cats. Dogs are pretty cool, too.
3. My favorite pizza topping is anchovies. (For real. They are delicious.)

Vernick, Audrey

Audrey Vernick writes picture books and middle-grade fiction. Her books include the New York Times Notable Book Brothers at Bat, First Grade Dropout, and Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? She has also co-authored five books—three with Liz Garton Scanlon – Five Minutes (That’s a Lot of Time) (No, It’s Not) (Yes, It Is); Bob, Not Bob, and Dear Substitute; as well as Two Naomis and Naomis Too with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. A frequent presenter at schools across the country, she lives near the ocean in New Jersey. Visit her at www.audreyvernick.com.

Awards
New York Times Notable Book, California Young Readers Medal, BCCB Blue Ribbon Books, three-time recipient of writing fellowship from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts, Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Books of the Year.

3 Fun Facts

1. Grew up in Queens but is a big Yankee fan. (Sorry, Mets.)
2. She once saw Bruce Springsteen and Derek Jeter within a half-hour period and did not faint but may have screamed like a Beatles girl.
3. Her favorite part of being an adult is that she gets to have a dog. Always.

Tucker, Laura

Laura Tucker has coauthored more than twenty books, including two New York Times bestselling memoirs. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, and is a cat person who cheats with dogs. All the Greys on Greene Street is her first novel. www.lauratuckerbooks.com

ALA Notable Book, five starred reviews, five Best of the Year lists, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Edgar award nominee.

3 Fun Facts

1. I am a cat person who cheats with dogs.
2. I’m not an artist! I can barely draw a stick figure but this does not stop me.
3. Like Olympia, I grew up in New York.

Freedman, Deborah

Deborah Freedman was an architect once, but now prefers building worlds in picturebooks. She is the author and illustrator of, most recently, Shy, This House, Once, and CARL and the Meaning of Life. Her books have been translated into seven different languages, adopted in classrooms across the country, and honored with many starred reviews and awards. She lives in a colorful house in Connecticut, where she is always busy at work on her next books. Learn more about Deborah at www.deborahfreedman.net, and please stop by at the festival, and say hello!

Multiple starred reviews, state award nominations, “best of the year” lists —Kirkus, Bookpage, Booklist, Bank Street, Huffington Post, NY & Chicago Public Libraries, and others.

Other awards include:
Crystal Kite Awards
Parents’ Choice Award
Nerdy Book Club Awards
Amazon Books of the Month
Society of Illustrators’ Original Art
Indie Next List
Junior Library Guild

3 Fun Facts

1. I used to be an architect.
2. I have books in every room of my house.
3. I love to plant things and watch them grow, with the aid, of course, of hard-working earthworms!

Rissi, Anica Mrose

Anica Mrose Rissi is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for kids and teens, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and YA. Her essays have been published by The Writer and the New York Times, and she plays fiddle in and writes lyrics for the band Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves. Anica grew up in Maine and spent many years in New York City, where she worked as an executive editor in children’s book publishing. She currently lives in central New Jersey with her very good dog, Sweet Potato. Learn more at anicarissi.com.

Awards

Honors include the Maine Literary Award, the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of the Year, Texas Library Association’s Tayshas Reading List and 2×2 Reading List, multiple foreign translations and starred reviews, and Junior Library Guild Selection.

3 Fun Facts

1. Loves writing scary stories, but gets easily spooked
2. Plays the violin in an electro-country band called Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves
3. Lives with a very good dog named Sweet Potato

Erwin, Kimberly Y.

Kimberly Y. Erwin (Author), received her MS in Education: Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in academia for well over three decades. She is an author, an entrepreneur, an international journalist and writer, a Reading Instructor & was a high school Language Arts Dept. Chair in Florida, an English college professor, and among various and numerous other titles enjoyed Director of Multicultural Student Affairs (Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY) most as that is what propelled her into researching and writing on the topic of race & ethnicity. Currently, Ms. Erwin is on the board and program chairperson of the library in the city of Hudson, NY where she resides and runs a media company that seeks to publish and promote positive works, i.e. diversity appreciation and self-awareness and love—in photography, film/video, and of course, books! www.kimberlyerwin.me

Look for her also at: https://twitter.com/kyerwinauthor

Ms. Erwin also would like to recognize the book’s, Photographer

Zoey Catlin, High School student & budding photographer, taking photos of family, friends, and just about any and every engagement she is invited to, including weddings—and loves her little sister (and one of this book’s models, Bailiegh)!

3 Fun Facts

1. I met my Italian American beau when I was 6 years old—and wrote this children’s book DUE to an engagement I had had with him. At 8, he understood better than the adults around us that the little African American girl on the steps outside of “her” neighborhood didn’t have to “Go back home!” The “older” boy sat and chatted with her making her feel like she was just where she belonged (period)
2. I gave myself a “stage” name because of course, I was going to be a famous 1) ballerina, 2) actor, and 3) Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader! In perhaps that order!
3. I’m a HUDSONIAN! (Whoo-Whoo!) I lived in over 16 cities, states, and countries altogether on both coasts & the mid-west and on 2 continents & an island in the Caribbean. Yet, I came back 2 give back! And yes, it’s MORE than worth it–seeing the eyes of young students in elementary and junior high school as well as hearing from teens who are about to graduate from high school how much I (just being Ms. Erwin) MATTER to them. It’s not usual for them to have someone to whom they can relate—just upon 1st glance! PRICELESS.

Corrigan, Caroline

Caroline Corrigan is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She works out of her home studio in Upstate New York, where she lives with her husband, and three young children. Her favorite color is blue and her favorite museum is Musée d’Orsay. http://www.carolinecorrigan.com/

3 Fun Facts

1. The author and illustrator are friends who decided to make a book about the artists they loved one day.
2. Melanie studied women and art in college while raising her son, Julian, so this book is a culmination of those two experiences.
3. Caroline is an amazing illustrator, artist, and graphic designer whose visual signature can be seen all over upstate New York.

About Fred Wynn

Leno, Katrina

3 Fun Facts

Stark, Hannah

3 Fun Facts

Stephens, Dr. Cynthia

3 Fun Facts

Thermes, Jennifer

3 Fun Facts

Vernick, Audrey

3 Fun Facts

Tucker, Laura

3 Fun Facts

Freedman, Deborah

3 Fun Facts

Rissi, Anica Mrose

Awards

3 Fun Facts

Erwin, Kimberly Y.

3 Fun Facts

Corrigan, Caroline

3 Fun Facts