I am a writer because I grew up listening to the different ways that people talk and use language. When I was little, I lived with people from three diverse cultures. My father was a Jewish kid from the Bronx, New York. My mother was from a small town in Nottingham, England (where legendary hero Robin Hood lived). When she came to the United States for the 1964 World’s Fair, they met and fell in love.
After they got married, my parents lived in Thailand for a year and became friends with the Osathanugrah family. Around the time I was born, the Osathanugrahs’ two teenage boys came to live with us and attend school in the U.S. Imagine the mix of accents my ears had to tune into every day!
By the time I was in second grade, my Thai brothers went away to school. But I had two little brothers in their place. Teachers seemed to like my writing. A few of my poems and stories were published in PTA newsletters. I loved reading, especially the Narnia books. But it was the novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, that made me want to be a writer.
Photo by Linda Joy Burke
I was reading on my bed on a sunny spring weekend when I was about twelve. I looked up from sad Jane and the gray, windy moors of England and saw—through my window—my younger brothers playing outside. How could my mind be with Jane Eyre on the desolate moors when I was physically in New Jersey, in my own room? I felt like Alice in Through the Lookingglass at the moment she is in both worlds, the real one and the one beyond the mirror. I wanted to be able to take people to faraway places and times with my words, the way Charlotte Bronte did with Jane Eyre.
I spent a lot of my time at Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, NJ writing in my journal, working on the school literary magazine, and dreaming of being a writer. I tried other activities (marching band, fencing) until I hurt my knee. Having to sit out sports made me focus on writing even more. When I received my college acceptance letter from New York University’s Dramatic Writing Program, I knew I was on my writing path.
Tuning in, listening to the way people spoke and the things that they said – these were skills I learned as a young child, even though I didn’t know I was learning them. I still use those skills today—in my writing, as a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Artist-in-Education program, and as a teacher at the Vermont College of Fine Arts program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Writing poetry and fiction with kids is one of my favorite ways to share my love of words, language, and interesting people like the ones you will meet in my books The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Takedown, and A Place at the Table. Who knows, you may even open the gates of Monsterville and meet a friendly monster!
100-word professional BIO:
Laura Shovan is a novelist, educator, and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. Her work appears in journals and anthologies for children and adults. Laura’s award-winning middle grade novels include The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Takedown, and the Sydney Taylor Notable A Place at the Table, written with Saadia Faruqi. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (BFA Dramatic Writing) and Montclair State University (Master of Arts, Teaching), Laura is a longtime poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council. She also teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her latest book is Welcome to Monsterville, illustrated by Michael Rothenberg
