Jane Yolen: Grande dame of children's literature
By Judy Polan

HATFIELD - The prolific writer Jane Yolen has been dubbed the "Hans Christian Andersen of America," the "Aesop of the 20th century," "one of the grande dames of children's literature," and, simply, "a national treasure."
Yolen, who lives in Hatfield and in St. Andrews, Scotland, has written more than 250 books ("270 - but who's counting?" she said) in genres ranging from children's poetry, picture books, and songbooks, to novels and nonfiction for young adults, to adult anthologies and novels, to science fiction, and even comic books. The list of awards she has won is enough to make one's head spin, and includes the prestigious Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, and a Christopher Medal. 
Her book "The Devil's Arithmetic"   (Viking, 1988) - a young adult novel about the Holocaust - won the Sydney Taylor Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Jewish Book Council Award, the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award, was a Nebula Honor Book, and was made into a movie for Showtime by Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers. Yolen describes it as "a story of the quiet heroism in the camps and why we must bear witness to history... Writers and storytellers are the memory of a civilization, and we who are alive now must not forget what happened in that awful time, or else we may be doomed to repeat it."
She has written about 10 books with Jewish themes, which, she observes, "would make me a prolific Jewish writer - except it is really a small part of my overall work."
Regarding the plethora of awards gracing her two homes, she notes, "The letters from kids about my books mean more than the awards. Awards are nice, though - they help bring awareness to the body of work. They shine a light on a particular book. It makes me think, ‘Wow! Someone likes me.' They also have to be dusted, and one actually set my good coat on fire." (It was an award with a magnifying glass on top.)
When asked for inspirational advice from would-be writers, her no-nonsense response is, "I tell people that the only magic word for a writer is BIC - Butt In Chair. (Or, in polite company, I say Bottom In Chair.) Even the most talented writer gets nowhere without that."

Daily writer

Diligence, combined with a spirited imagination and an acute sensitivity to the rhythm of language, have been the hallmarks of Yolen's character since she was a child.
In an interview with the Internet Writers' Journal, she remarked, "It seems like I've been writing since birth." She describes herself as "a person in love with story and with words. I wake up, and I have to write."
For many years, Yolen's work day began with an early morning climb up to her attic office - she calls it "the aerie" - still in her nightgown, a cup of decaf in hand. She would write for about three hours, come down and make herself breakfast, then go back upstairs for another three to five hours.
"But health reasons," she says, "have changed that. A bad back makes a lot of stair-climbing and sitting at the desk problematic. So now I work on the sofa downstairs with a laptop. I eat a real breakfast. Sometimes I make it up to the attic, and sometimes not. What has not changed is that I try to write every day."
Yolen began writing poetry before she started going to school. In first grade, she wrote the class musical - both the words and the music. The play was about a bunch of vegetables that got together to make a salad; she played the chief carrot. 
She grew up in Manhattan, where her father was a cafe´ journalist and newspaper writer, and her mother wrote short stories and created crossword puzzles and acrostics. 
"We lived on Central Park West and 97th Street until I turned 13. I went to PS 93, where I was a gold star kid, writing up a fury and singing with my pals Sue Hodes (now a well-known painter) and Sue Levitt (now Susan Stamberg of NPR) and others. I took piano lessons, and studied ballet at Balanchine's School of American Ballet. Then I tested and got into Hunter Junior High School and discovered that there were a lot of gold star girls all over the city. What a shock!"
"I had a non-religious upbringing," she comments, "but was part of a very wild and loud extended Jewish family (the Yolens) and a very soft-spoken and intellectual Jewish family (the Berlins). I have both strands in me." 
When she was 13, she asked to go to Sunday school. Then, in typical trailblazing fashion, she became the first girl ever to read from the Torah in the history of her temple, and eventually became the head of her synagogue's youth group. 
While attending Smith College in Northampton, she wrote newspaper articles and songs. She sold her first book on her 22nd birthday: a nonfiction work about women pirates, "Pirates in Petticoats." The rest is, literally, writing history.
Daniel Lombardo, former curator of Special Collections at the Jones Library in Amherst, says, "Jane is one of those rare writers who is brilliant, endlessly abundant - and not hated by jealous rivals! She easily shifts from sharing her expertise with struggling writers, to sharing laughs with other greats in the children's book world. I remember hosting Barbara Cooney for an exhibit and book signing at the Jones Library, and what a joy it was to see Jane and Barbara trading stories and delighting in each others' work."
Yolen has been married for nearly 43 years to Dr. David Stemple, professor emeritus in the Computer Science Department of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the paper went to press, he was in St. Andrews attending the British Open golf tournament; Yolen will be traveling to Scotland in August, when she will be a Guest of Honour at the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. 
She enjoys her life in Scotland where, she says, "the rhythms are very different. I get lots done in the early morning since my agent, my children, and my East Coast publishers aren't awake until Scotland's 2 p.m. Things are quieter in other ways - I don't give speeches, go to conferences, or mentor scores of children's book writers (except online.) And I am hearing a different rhythm in the spoken language, whether from friends, or on the TV, or in the shops."
Yolen and her husband have three grown children - Heidi E.Y. Stemple, 39, a children's book writer (formerly a probation officer and a private detective); Adam Stemple, 37, a professional musician and novelist; and Jason Stemple, 35, a photographer. She has worked professionally with all of them, most recently with her daughter, narrating two stories from their "Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories" (Barefoot Books, 2004) for the Amherst Ballet. They have six grandchildren. Yolen's latest release, "Grandma's Hurrying Child" (Harcourt, 2005), was inspired by the birth of her first grandchild, Maddison Jane, now 10.
One thing that has not changed, despite the phenomenal trajectory of Yolen's writing career and myriad awards she's won, is the excitement she experiences with each new publication.
 "Every new book is a cause for celebration. I do the happy dance (bad back be damned!) whenever I get my first copies."   

Judy Polan is an award-winning features writer and musician, design writer for Style 1900 magazine, and occasional memoir essayist on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio's "Roundtable", "51%', and "Midday Magazine" shows. She welcomes e-mail via her Web site, www.judypolan.com
© Judy Polan 2005