Emily van Beek’s Clients

	Pam Bachorz: Pam Bachorz grew up in a small town in the Adirondack foothills, where she participated in every possible performance group and assiduously avoided any threat of athletic activity, unless it involved wearing sequined headpieces and treading water. Pam attended college in Boston and finally decided she was finished after earning four degrees: a BS in Journalism, a BA in Environmental Science, a Masters in Library Science, and an MBA. Pam is the author of Candor, an acclaimed dystopian YA novel (Egmont, 2009) as well as Drought, a chilling YA psychological thriller (Egmont, 2011). Pam lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and son.(p>
	Erin Bow: Erin Bow studied particle physics in university, eventually working at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. She then decided to leave science in order to concentrate on her writing. Her poetry has won a CBC Literary Award, whose previous winners include Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields, and several other awards. She is the author of two books of poetry, a memoir, and most recently, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award-winning Plain Kate, (Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic, 2010) hailed by The Horn Book as a “stunning debut fantasy”. Her second YA, Sorrow’s Knot, will be published by Scholastic (2012). Erin lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with her husband and two little girls.
	Sandra Bradley: When Sandra was a child, her family took sabbaticals in England and during the summers her parents were brave enough to cram three lively kids into a tiny VW campervan and wind their way around Europe. The travel bug stuck and Sandra has since enjoyed living in Hong Kong, New Zealand and various parts of Canada. Sandra and her New Zealander husband, Grant, live on a lake near Kingston, Ontario, with their three children. Sandra holds Masters degrees in sociology and counseling. Her debut picture book, Henry Holton Takes the Ice!, will be published by Dial Children’s Books.
	Juli Brenning: Juli Brenning grew up in a small town in southern Ohio and went to school in Indiana where she studied music, literature, and film. She then moved to New York City and worked briefly in magazine publishing before returning to Ohio to receive a teaching certificate in English, but soon left the classroom to be a stay-at-home mom. Juli now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, two kids, an ill-mannered dog, and a very fat cat. Her debut picture book, I Am Froghunter . . . And He Is Max! will be published by Dial Children’s Books in 2012.
	Crystal Chan: Crystal Chan’s heart lies in public speaking, performing, and ultimately, writing. She has published articles in several magazines; given talks and workshops across the country; facilitated discussion groups at national conferences; and been a professional storyteller for children and adults alike. In Chicago, where Crystal lives, you will find her late into the night, writing. Her debut middle-grade novel, Bird, will be published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in summer 2013.
	Hadley Dyer: Hadley Dyer’s debut novel, Johnny Kellock Died Today (HarperCollins Canada, 2006), won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award, was named an Honour Book for the CLA’s Young Adult Book of the Year Award, was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and four reader’s choice prizes. Hadley’s most recent title is Watch This Space: Designing, Sharing, and Defending Public Spaces (Kids Can Press, 2010), a finalist for the prestigious Norma Fleck Award for Children’s Nonfiction. At work on a new book for young adults about urban farming, Hadley is also the executive editor of children’s books at HarperCollinsCanada.

	Abigail Halpin: Abigail Halpin is an illustrator and graphic designer living in New England. Her illustrations are a blend of traditional and digital media, incorporating watercolor, ink, pencil, scanned textures, and more. Her illustrations have appeared in Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe (Aladdin / S&S, 2009), Emma Jean Lazarus Fell In Love (Puffin Books, 2010), The Melancholic Mermaid (Simply Read Books, 2010), Penny Dreadful (Random House, 2010), the Cupcake Diaries series (Simon Spotlight, 2011), and in Uma Krishnaswami’s The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (Atheneum / S&S, 2011). Her illustrations will also be featured in Ms. Krishnaswami’s sequel (Atheneum / S&S, 2012) as well as in Andrea Cheng’s The Book Girl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), and Elissa Haden Guest’s Bella (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013).
	Jenny Han: Jenny Han (Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, VA. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and she went on to graduate at the New School in NYC where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn and works part-time at a school library on the Upper West Side. Jenny is the author of the middle-grade novel Shug (a Booksense Pick), the New York Times bestselling young adult titles The Summer I Turned Pretty (ALA Best Book for YA), It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer (Simon & Schuster, 2009, 2010, and 2011), as well as the chapter book, Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream, featuring illustrations by Julia Kuo (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011). She’s working on a new trilogy with Siobhan Vivian called Burn for Burn (Simon & Schuster, fall 2012).
	Julia Kuo: Julia Kuo grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. After attending Washington University in St. Louis for illustration and marketing, she moved to Cleveland to work for a large greeting card company. Since then, she has become a full-time illustrator. She now divides her time between Cleveland and Taipei, drawing cute things, spending time outdoors, and eating snacks. Julia is the illustrator of Jenny Han’s Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011) as well as a board book she both wrote and illustrated called Everybody Eats (forthcoming from Simply Read Books).
	April Lurie: April Lurie was born and raised in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, a neighborhood populated by the Mafia. This inspired her to write Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds (Delacorte, 2007), a New York Public Library Book for the Teenage, a KLIATT Editor’s Choice, and a selection for the Texas Lone Star List. She is also the author of The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine (Delacorte, 2008), and Dancing in the Streets of Brooklyn (Delacorte, 2002). Her most recent novel, The Less-Dead (Delacorte, 2010), was a selection for the ALA Rainbow List. She lives near Austin, TX with her husband and their four children.
	Irene Luxbacher: Irene Luxbacher is the Governor General’s Award nominated illustrator of Andrew Larsen’s The Imaginary Garden (KCP, 2009) which was hailed by Booklist “as fresh and vibrant as a spring garden” in a starred review, her own Mattoo, Let’s Play! which School Library Journal called “remarkable” and Kirkus raved as being “spot on”(KCP, 2010), as well as eight acclaimed children’s art activity books. She lives in Toronto.
	Jill McDonald: Jill always wanted to be an artist. From the moment she could wrap her hands around crayons and sidewalk chalk she could be found drawing and picking out colors that spoke to her. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she worked as a designer/print stylist at Baby GAP and then as an Illustrator at Hallmark Cards. She later went on to start her own Design Studio which led to the launch of Jill McDonald Baby and Kids. Her baby bedding and nursery decor can be found at Babies R Us, Pottery Barn Kids, and Land of Nod among other boutiques. She’d also long dreamt of creating beautiful books for children and has illustrated the award-winning Who’s in the Garden?, Who’s in the Forest?, Who’s in the Farmyard? and Over in the Meadow for Barefoot Books and Pocket Kisses for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers among others. She’s currently at work on both writing and illustrating her own novelty and picture books.
	C.C. Payne: Author C. C. Payne was born and raised in Kentucky, by a family chock-full of superb storytellers: readers, writers, teachers, and librarians. Naturally, at the age of seven, she became a voracious reader. “After that,” Payne says, “the house could’ve fallen down around my ears, and I would’ve just thought, Does this mean I have to put my book down?” Payne’s first novel, Something to Sing About, received a starred review from Booklist, has been named one of the Top Ten Best by Booklist, has been nominated for a 2010-2011 Children’s Crown Award, and a 2011 Kentucky Bluegrass Award. Payne’s second novel, Lula Bell on Geekdom, Freakdom, Fifth Grade & the Virtues of Sweet Tea, will be published by Marshall Cavendish in 2012. Meanwhile, C.. Payne continues to write–she says she’s recently noticed that all her books are like her: hopeful, humorous, and distinctly Southern–and to live in Kentucky.
	Erin E. Stead: Erin E. Stead is the Caldecott Medal winning and New York Times bestselling illustrator of A Sick Day for Amos McGee, also named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010 and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of 2010 (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2010) as well as the upcoming and then it’s spring written by Julie Fogliano which has received five starred reviews to date. Erin creates her illustrations by hand using woodblock printing techniques and pencil. She and her husband, author and artist Philip C. Stead, live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
	Philip C. Stead: Philip C. Stead is the author of the Caldecott Medal winning and New York Times bestselling A Sick Day for Amos McGee, also named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010 and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of 2010, illustrated by his wife, Erin E. Stead (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2010). Philip, also an artist, both wrote and illustrated his debut Creamed Tuna Fish and Peas on Toast (Roaring Brook Press, 2009), which was applauded by School Library Journal for “its wry humor and illustrations worthy of a Roald Dahl creation” as well as Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2011) called “pitch-perfect” in a starred PW review and the upcoming A Home for Bird (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2012). Philip lives with Erin in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
	Laura L. Sullivan: Laura L. Sullivan—a former newspaper editor, social worker, biologist, and deputy sheriff – is above all else a dilettante. She has an English degree from Cornell University, and once assumed she would be an English professor, but eventually learned she preferred to simply devour books rather than dismember and dissect them. Of her debut middle-grade fantasy, Under the Green Hill, School Library Journal said, “. . . the ending begs for a sequel” (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers , 2010). The sequel, Guardian of the Green Hill, will be published 2011 (Henry Holt). Her bawdy young adult historical, Ladies in Waiting, will be published by Harcourt in spring 2012.
	Gabi Swiatkowska: Gabi Swiatkowksa received the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for her work on My Name Is Yoon by Helen Recorvits (FSG, 2003). She went on to illustrate many more stories about Yoon, and many other beautiful books for children. Gabi was born in Poland, where she studied at the prestigious Liceum of Art; she also attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. She now lives in France with her husband and daughter.
	Siobhan Vivian: Siobhan Vivian is the author of the young adult novels A Little Friendly Advice (PUSH / Scholastic, 2008), Same Difference, named both a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and an ALA Best Book for Teens (PUSH / Scholastic, 2009), Not That Kind of Girl named both a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and an ALA Best Book for Teens (PUSH / Scholastic, 2010), and The List (PUSH / Scholastic, 2012). She is currently working on a trilogy, co-authored with Jenny Han, which will launch with the debut title Burn for Burn (Simon & Schuster, 2012). In addition to her books, Siobhan has also written for The Disney Channel and worked as an editor at Alloy Entertainment. She currently teaches creative writing at The University of Pittsburgh.
	Mike Wu: Mike Wu was accepted into the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California He graduated in 1996 with a BFA in Character Animation and was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios where he worked for the next six years on films such as Hercules, Tarzan, Atlantis, and Mulan. Shortly thereafter, Mike followed his childhood dream of working for the studio that created Luxo Jr. He moved to the Bay Area and started at Pixar Animation Studios where he animated on the Oscar-winning The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, UP, and most recently the Oscar award-winning Toy Story 3. In addition to his animation, Mike is currently developing his own picture book work and is the proud owner/designer of a children’s clothing line called Tiny Teru.