July 14,  2023

Stony Brook Southampton MFA Information Session 1:10 PM - Salon Tent, CH Lawn

w/ MFA Associate Director Molly Gaudry, Executive Director Carla Caglioti, Magdalene Brandeis, & Associate Provost Paul Harding

Lilly Dancyger is the author of Negative Space(2021), a reported and illustrated memoir selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards; and the editor of Burn It Down (2019), a critically acclaimed anthology of essays on women's anger. She is currently at work on First Love, a collection of essays about the power and complexity of female friendship, forthcoming from The Dial Press. Lilly's writing has been published by Guernica, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, Longreads, The Washington Post, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and more. She lives in New York City, and you can find her on Twitter at @lillydancyger. 

As publisher of the award winning imprint, Laura Geringer Books, editor, story advisor, teacher and writer, Laura Geringer Bass has collaborated with many celebrated authors and artists in the field of children’s books. She has worked with numerous publishing houses and entertainment studios including HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin, Hyperion/Disney, Dreamworks, Fox, and CBS. 

She develops picture books, illustrated novels and YAs in partnership with Shannon Associates LLC, a global talent agency representing over 200 writers and artists worldwide. She teaches writing workshops privately and at the JCC and is a faculty member of New York Writer’s Workshop (NYWW), an instructor for Prison Writes serving teens at risk through New York City's Administration for Children’s Services' Close to Home program (ACS), and a mentor for Girls Write Now. 

Laura is the author of twenty books for children including the bestselling A Three Hat Day, an ALA Notable Book illustrated by Arnold Lobel, a Top Ten featured selection on LeVar Burton’s Reading Rainbow. Her YA fantasy, Sign of the Qin, an ALA Best Book was shortlisted for the Printz award. Myth Men, her popular series of graphic novels was adapted by CBS as an animated TV show. Her novel for middle graders, The Girl with More than One Heart, is was published by Abrams in 2018. Laura’s love of story informs her service on the board of First Book, a non-profit organization that has delivered over 150 million books into the hands of children in need. 

Julie Hedlund is an award-winning children’s book author from Boulder, Colorado.

Her titles include: Over, Bear! Under Where? (Philomel, 2021), My Love for You is the Sun (Little Bahalia Publishing, 2014), A Troop is a Group of Monkeys (Little Bahalia Publishing, 2013) and the forthcoming Song Afer Song: The Musical Life of Julie Andrews (Little Bee Books, 2023).

Julie the founder of the 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge, which boasts more than 2000 members. She is also a co-founder of Picture Book Summit, an annual online conference celebrating its 9th anniversary in 2023, and the co-creator (with Emma Walton Hamilton) of The Complete Picture Book Submissions System. Julie is a sought-after speaker at writing industry events, schools and libraries, bookstores, and book festivals.

Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling and award-winning author, editor, stage, television and podcast writer/producer and arts educator. Together with her mother, Julie Andrews, she has co-authored over thirty books for children and adults, nine of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including The Very Fairy Princess series (#1 NY Times Bestseller), Andrews’ second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years and most recently, The First Notes: The Story of Do, Re, Mi.A Bridport Prize-winning poet, Emma recently published a poetry collection entitled Door to Door (Andrews McMeel Publishing) and her book for parents and caregivers, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won a Parent’s Choice Gold Medal.

Emma was a two-time Emmy Award nominee for her role as Executive Producer and Writer for Julie’s Greenroom, a children’s television program about the performing arts created for Netflix, starring Julie Andrews and co-produced by the Jim Henson Company. Emma is also a Grammy Award-winning voice-over artist, having provided voicing for numerous audiobooks, including Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies (2010 Grammy Award, Best Spoken Word Album for Children), as well as numerous radio, television, theater and industrial spots. She and her mother co-host and co-produce Julie’s Library, a story-time podcast for family audiences produced by American Public Media.

A faculty member for Stony Brook University’s MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, Emma teaches all forms of children’s book writing and serves as Director of the annual Children’s Literature Conference, as well as Executive Director of the Young Artists and Writers Project (YAWP), an interdisciplinary writing program for middle and high school students.  

Vijay Seshadri is the author of five collections of poems: “Wild Kingdom,” “The Long Meadow,” “The Disappearances,” “3 Sections,” and “That Was Now, This Is Then”; and many essays, reviews, and memoir fragments. His work has been recognized with a number of honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. 

BookEnds Fellowship Six Graduation Readings. Hear from graduating Fellows Robert Crace, Katie Aspell, Shadi Mir, Suzanne LaFetra, Esperanza Cintrón, Katie Kalahan, Fae Engstrom, Sarah Meyer de Stadelhofen, Stefani Nellen, Rose Afriye, Miranda Shulman and Craig Holt. Introduced by their mentors: Molly Gaudry, Fiona Maazel, Stephanie Gangi, Matthew Klam, Clifford Thompson, Eve Gleichman, Rachel Pastan, Matthew Thomas, Christina Baker Kline, Lincoln Michel, Karen Bender and Meg Wolitzer.