A talk by the award-winning children’s writer, Sarah Ellis. Ellis has always appreciated children’s literature from the multiple perspectives of writer, reviewer, critic, and teacher of children’s literature and creative writing. She will discuss her experience as the insider crafting a story and the outsider striving to put that story into context.
Her fourteen children’s books have won many awards, including the Governor General’s and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Sarah received a master’s degree in children’s literature after a career as a children’s librarian, and is now on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has also lectured in Japan, Venezuela, England, Ireland and various Canadian and American locations. She received the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
The colloquium is sponsored by the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Program, offered by the Creative Writing Program, the English Department, the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, and the Department of Language and Literacy Education.
Bio:
Sarah Ellis (born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian children’s author and librarian. She attended the University of British Columbia where she received her Bachelors of Arts honours in 1973 and a Masters in Library Science in 1975. She also attended the Centre for the Study of Children’s Literature, Simmons College in Boston in 1980. She has been a librarian in Toronto and Vancouver. She has also written reviews for Quill and Quire. Ellis is a strong advocate for children’s literature and she belongs to many different clubs and unions such as the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Vancouver Society of Story Tellers, the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, Children’s Writers and Illustrators and many more. She has won numerous literary awards, including the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for Odd Man Out, the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for Odd Man Out, Back of Beyond and The Baby Project, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the IODE Violet Downey Award for Out of the Blue and The Several Lives of Orphan Jack, and theGovernor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature for Pick Up Sticks.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, The Dodson Room Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre