Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. Her other works include the Nebula Award−winning short story "Sister Emily's Lightship", the novelette "Lost Girls", '' Owl Moon'', ''

The Emperor and the Kite ''The Emperor and the Kite'', written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Ed Young, is a 1967 picture book. ''The Emperor and the Kite'' was a Caldecott Medal Honor Book for 1968 and was Young's first Caldecott Honor Medal of a total of three durin ...

'', the ''

Commander Toad {{unreferenced, date=May 2019 ''Commander Toad'' is a series of children's books by Jane Yolen, published by Puffin Books from 1980 to 1998. The series is a toad-themed parody of pop culture science fiction filled with puns. ''Star Wars'' is refer ...

'' series and ''How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight''. She has collaborated on works with all three of her children, most extensively with Adam Stemple. Yolen gave the lecture for the 1989 Alice G. Smith Lecture, the inaugural year for the series. This lecture series is held at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

School of Information "to honor the memory of its first director, Alice Gullen Smith, known for her work with youth and bibliotherapy." In 2012 she became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.Adams, John Joseph; Barr Kirtley, David (January 23, 2013). "Author Jane Yolen Talks Book Banning and Harry Potter". ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

''. Yolen published her 400th book in early 2021, ''Bear Outside''.

Early life

Jane Hyatt Yolen was born on February 11, 1939, at

Beth Israel Medical Center Mount Sinai Beth Israel is a 799-bed teaching hospital in Manhattan. It is part of the Mount Sinai Health System, a nonprofit health system formed in September 2013 by the merger of Continuum Health Partners and Mount Sinai Medical Center, an ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. She is the first child of Isabell Berlin Yolen, a psychiatric social worker who became a full-time mother and homemaker upon Yolen's birth, and Will Hyatt Yolen, a journalist who wrote columns at the time for New York newspapers, and whose family emigrated from the Ukraine to the United States. Isabell also did volunteer work, and wrote short stories in her spare time. However, she was not able to sell them. Because the Hyatts, the family of Yolen's grandmother, Mina Hyatt Yolen, only had girls, a number of the children of Yolen's generation were given their last name as a middle name in order to perpetuate it. When Yolen was barely one year old, the family moved to California to accommodate Will's new job working for Hollywood film studios, doing publicity on films such as ''American Tragedy'' and '' Knut Rockne''. The family moved back to New York City prior to the birth of Yolen's brother, Steve. When Will joined the Army as a Second Lieutenant to fight in England during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Yolen, her mother and brother lived with her grandparents, Danny and Dan, in Newport News, Virginia. After the war, the family moved back to Manhattan, living on

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

and 97th Street until Yolen turned 13. She attended

PS 93 This is a list of public elementary schools in New York City. They are typically referred to as "PS number" (e.g. "PS 46"). Many PS numbers are ambiguous, being used by more than one school. The sections correspond to New York City DOE Regions. ...

, where she enjoyed writing and singing, and became friends with future radio presenter Susan Stamberg. She also engaged writing by creating a newspaper for her apartment with her brother that she sold for five cents a copy. She was accepted to

Music and Art High School The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the Hi ...

. During the summer prior to that semester, she attended a Vermont

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...

, which was her first involvement with the Society of Friends (Quakers). Her family also moved to a ranch house in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

, where she attended Bedford Junior high for ninth grade, and then Staples High School. She received a BA from Smith College in 1960 and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Education from the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

in 1978. After graduating she moved back to New York City.

Career

During the 1960s, Yolen held editorial positions at various magazines and publishers in New York City, including Gold Medal Books, Routledge Books, and Alfred A. Knopf Juvenile Books. From 1990 to 1996 she ran her own

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

imprint, Jane Yolen Books, at

Harcourt Brace Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City a ...

. Although Yolen considered herself a poet, journalist and nonfiction writer, she became a children's book writer. Her first published book was ''Pirates in Petticoats'', which was published on her 22nd birthday. ''Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens'', ''Favorite Folktales From Around the World'', ''Xanadu'' and ''Xanadu 2'' are among the works that she has edited. Her book ''Naming Liberty'' tells the story of a Russian girl and

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi ( , ; 2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904) was a French sculptor and painter. He is best known for designing ''Liberty Enlightening the World'', commonly known as the Statue of Liberty. Early life and education Barthold ...

, the designer of the Statue of Liberty. She has co-written two books with her son, the writer and musician Adam Stemple, ''Pay the Piper'' and ''Troll Bridge'', both part of the Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale series. She also wrote lyrics for the song "Robin's Complaint," recorded on the 1994 album ''

Antler Dance ''Antler Dance'' is the fourth album by Minneapolis Celtic rock band Boiled in Lead. It was the band's first recording with vocalist/guitarist Adam Stemple, who replaced Todd Menton after his departure in 1992. Founding bassist Drew Miller has ...

'' by Stemple's band

Boiled in Lead Boiled in Lead is a rock/world-music band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founded in 1983. Tim Walters of ''MusicHound Folk'' called the group "the most important folk-rock band to appear since the 1970s." Influential record producer and mu ...

. Regarding the similarities between her novel '' Wizard's Hall'' and the '' Harry Potter'' series, Yolen has commented on

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

, the author of that series:

Personal life

In 1962, Yolen married David W. Stemple. They had three children and six grandchildren. David Stemple died in March 2006. Yolen lives in Western Massachusetts. She also owns a house in Scotland, where she lives for a few months each year.

Awards

*1987 Special World Fantasy Award (for ''Favorite Folktales From Around the World'') *1989

Sydney Taylor Book Award The Sydney Taylor Book Award recognizes the best in Jewish children's literature. Medals are awarded annually for outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience. The award was established in 1968 by the Association of Jewish L ...

for Older Readers (for ''The Devil's Arithmetic'') *1992 The Catholic Library Association's

Regina Medal The Regina Medal is a literary award conferred annually by the U.S.-based Catholic Library Association. It recognizes one living person for "continued, distinguished contribution to children's literature without regard to the nature of the contri ...

(for her body of children's literature) *1999 Nebula Award for Novelette (for "Lost Girls") September 25, 2013. *2009

World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

at the 2010

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art show, a dealer's room, and an ...

. A panel of judges selects about two people annually. *2017

Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is a lifetime honor presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to no more than one living writer of fantasy or science fiction. It was inaugurated in 1975 when Rob ...

Nominations

*1984 World Fantasy Award for Anthology/Collection (for ''Tales of Wonder'') *1986 World Fantasy Award for Anthology/Collection (for ''Dragonfield and Other Stories'') *1987 World Fantasy Award for Anthology/Collection (for ''Merlin's Booke'') *1989 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (for ''Briar Rose'') *1993 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (for ''The Devil's Arithmetic'') *2009

Younger Reader Honor (for ''Naming Liberty'', illustrated by Jim Burke) *2021

Picture Book Honor (for ''Miriam at the River'', illustrated by Khoa Le)

Early life

Career

Personal life

Awards

Nominations

Bibliography

References

External links