Alison McGhee
Alison McGhee is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. She writes for all ages and in all forms, from poetry and stories to novels and picture books and essays, and her books are popular with critics and readers alike. Her novel Shadow Baby was a Today Show Book Club pick, and her picture book Someday was featured on NPR and has been translated into 24 languages.
Several of her books have been Borders Original Voices selections, Booksense 76 picks, Children’s Book of the Month club and Junior Literary Guild selections, ALA winners. She and co-writer Kate Dicamillo won the Theodor Geisel award for their first collaboration, Bink & Gollie.
Her many other awards include four Minnesota Book Awards, the GLCA National Fiction Award, Friends of the American Library Award, Gold Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Award, ALA Best Books for Children, and Parents’ Choice Award, and a City Pages Artist of the Year award.
Alison is a professor of creative writing at Metropolitan State University, where she coordinates the creative writing program. She has taught at many other colleges and universities and was a founding member of Hamline University’s
MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
When and why did you begin writing and/or illustrating children's books?
At first I wrote only novels, for adults. It never crossed my mind to write for children. But I’ve kept a journal for each year of each of my children’s lives since they were born, and one of my sisters told me there were all kinds of children’s book ideas contained within them. She kept after me to try writing a picture book, and finally I did, if only to make her be quiet. My very first picture book, Countdown to Kindergarten, was inspired by my older daughter’s great fear of not knowing how to tie her shoes when she went to school.
What inspires or informs your writing and/or art?
I remember what being a kid feels like – the curiosity and wonder and worry of life at all ages. I like putting myself back in that age, the newness of everything, and seeing the world from that perspective.
What do you want young readers to learn or take away from your work?
I want them to feel that they are seen and heard and respected.
Is there an artist or writer you would consider and mentor and why?
If I HAD to choose? Wow, that’s a tough order. I love and admire writers and illustrators like Kevin Henkes, Kathi Appelt, Maurice Sendak and William Steig.
Did you have any formal writing or art education, if so, where?
I was a Chinese major at Middlebury College in Vermont. Ten years later, pregnant and with a toddler, I whipped through a Master’s in English program at the University of Minnesota.
Do you have a favorite published book? If so, what makes it special?
That’s like asking me which of my children is my favorite! No can do. . . that said, I do love my adult picture book Someday, because it says everything I have to say about what it feels like to be a parent. To picture myself as one of a long line of parents through the ages.
