The young adult novel, Marked By Fire (Avon, 1982), was Joyce’s first published work for children Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea (HarperCollins, 1993) was her first picture book. She received her Master of Arts degree from Stanford University and has been a professor and teacher for over twenty years at some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, including the University of Tennessee and Purdue University. Joyce, award-winning author of more than 30 books and several plays, was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma. But the best picture books don’t just have spare text they use language masterfully–creating living characters and evoking vivid images that not only remain in the reader’s mind long after the book has been closed, but beg to be experienced time and time again.Īuthor Joyce Carol Thomas writes books like these. “Each word must be essential to the story or it mustn’t be there.” PB writing 101. Picture book authors must craft tales that include all the elements of story necessary in other genres, except they must do it in 1000 words or less (emphasis on the “less”). Getting one traditionally published: even tougher. Any writer who has penned a work that’s commanded the attention of an editor, and inspired a publisher to commit tremendous resources to bring it to market, he or she has earned the honor and respect that such an accomplishment deserves.īut there are books…and then there are books.

The following interview is one of my most cherished as well.

It is one of my most cherished mentor texts. Thomas’s earthly transition on August 13, 2016, I tracked down a copy and added it to my personal collection. I knew because I had checked out several of them from the library in preparation for our interview, and had become particularly smitten with the one called The Blacker the Berry.Īfter Ms. But I knew Joyce Carol Thomas wrote the most phenomenal books. I had the pleasure of interviewing Joyce Carol Thomas in 2011, during my second year with The Brown Bookshelf, when I still quite green and didn’t know much about the publishing industry at all.

Crowning Glory by Joyce Carol Thomas