Silberberg wins 2008 Thurber Children's Writer in Residency

With the quick wit and imaginative characters of his middle school novel, Pond Scum, Alan Silberberg will be the 2008 Thurber House Children's Writer in Residence. Simultaneously silly and serious, Alan’s innate sense of whimsy and his down-to-earth attitude about all things ‘growing up’ have humble beginnings: “I’ve been making up stories since I fell out of a tree I wasn’t supposed to climb and I needed a good excuse for my parents.” This knack for recreating the feelings of childhood mischief, misery and mania have made Alan a popular writer with children’s television stations such as Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel. As a resident, Alan will stay in Thurber House's "haunted" third floor apartment from July-August and make appearances at the Thurber Summer Writing Camp and other events around town.

For more information about Mr. Silberberg, visit his website at www.silberbooks.com
 

Background of Thurber Writer in Residency

The annual Thurber House Residency in Children's Literature, generously sponsored by JP Morgan Chase, is awarded to a talented author of books for middle grade children and takes place over four weeks during the months of June and July. Candidates should have at least one book for middle grade children with a major publisher and should have experience with and an enthusiasm for teaching children. We are most interested in giving emerging authors an opportunity to work on their craft while providing local children the chance to work with professional writers.

Since 2001, the Thurber House has offered children's book writers a month-long retreat in the furnished third-floor apartment of Thurber House. Each resident spends up to ten hours per week teaching children the joys of writing in both a community-based agency and as part of the Thurber House Summer Writing Camp for children. He or she also receives a stipend and has plenty of time to write in the apartment where the bed fell on James Thurber's father. Past recipients are Deborah Wiles (01), Kathryn Hewitt (02), Natasha Tarpley (03), Laurie Miller Hornik (04), Shelley Pearsall (05), and Sam Swope (06), Lisa Yee (07). For more on Yee, please read below.

To apply:
Each September, Thurber House requests nominations from publishers and literary agents in the field of children's literature. Only writers who have been nominated by their publisher or agent will receive an invitation to apply for the residency. Nominations for 2009 will begin in September. Publishers and agents can nominate authors by emailing Patricia Shannon, Director of Children's Programming, at pshannon@thurberhouse.org.

Thurber House would like to thank JP Morgan Chase for their continuous sponsorship of this program.