Boston Library Associates Seeking New Children's Writer-in-Residence

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is running its 10th annual Children's Writer-in-Residence competition.

The program was created to provide an emerging children's writer with the financial support and quiet space needed to complete one literary work within a nine-month period. The fellowship provides each author with a "room of his/her own" in the Central Library in Copley Square, and a $20,000 stipend. The residency will run from October 2013 through June 2014. 

Eligible projects include fiction, nonfiction, a script or poetry intended for children or young adults. Illustrations may be combined with any of these formats, but are not required. The application and guidelines can be found online at writer-in-residence.org. Applications are due on Friday, May 24.

The winner will be selected in a blind evaluation process by a panel of judges from the world of children's literature, including award-winning authors, children's book editors, and librarians. The program is funded thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

"The Children's Writer-in-Residence Fellowship is cause for celebration for several reasons," Associates Board chairman Vivian Spiro said. "First, it will provide an exciting new talent with the support and public exposure necessary for success; and second, through the Children's Writer-in-Residence program, the Associates will visibly further its mission of supporting the Boston Public Library and promoting the importance of writers, books, and reading in our culture." Ms. Spiro added that to the best of her knowledge, the Associates' stipend is one of the largest of its kind offered in the United States.

The current resident, Hollis Shore of Lancaster, is spending her residency writing "Saved"—a story about a young artist on a search for the music within.

Shore earned a B.A. in English at the University of Vermont and an 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.

Two previous recipients of the Associates’ Children’s Writer-in-Residence fellowship have published books, and several have found agents. In March 2012, the Associates’ very first author, Hannah Barnaby, published the book that she wrote during her BPL residency, "Wonder Show." Anna Staniszewski, the Associates’ Children’s Writer-in-Residence from 2006-2007, published her first novel, "My Very UnFairy Tale Life," in November 2011, and the sequel, "My Epic Fairy Tale Fail," was published in March 2013.

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the Boston Public Library’s special collections of rare books, manuscripts, and other items of significant historic interest.  

Since its founding in 1972, the Associates has been the creator and underwriter of a wide array of programs, designed to heighten public awareness of the Boston Public Library's vast free, educational resources.

To learn more, visit www.TheAssociates.org.