Mary Ann Hoberman
| Mary Ann Hoberman is a poet and author of many books for children, including A House is a House for Me, winner of a National Book Award. Other popular titles include The Seven Silly Eaters and the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series. She received the 2003 Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, given by the National Council of Teachers of English. She has taught writing and literature from the elementary through the college level. She co-founded and performed with both “The Pocket People”, a children’s theatre group, and “Women’s Voices”, a group giving dramatized poetry readings. For more information, visit www.maryannhoberman.com. |
*You expected to become a writer from a very early age. What contributed to your love of words and story?
Above all, listening to fairy tales. And for whatever reason I made up rhymes and stories for as far back as I can remember. I seem to have been born with a fascination with words.
*Do you consider yourself more a poet or a storyteller?
Probably more a versifier and a wordplayer.
*Tell us a little about your daily schedule. Do you make time to write every day?
When I was younger, I used to write every morning, but I am much less disciplined now. These days I write in fits and spurts, depending on what I'm working on or playing with.
*How do you know when one of your poems is finished? Do you ever feel it's perfect and shouldn't change a word, or do you finally just give in to the words you've chosen?
That depends on the poem. When you work in form and rhyme, your choice of words is very limited - the same words must express the feeling, meaning, music, and cadence of the poem. When I start the poem, usually with a cluster of words, I know the right words are out there - it's just a question of finding them and reeling them in - rather like catching a slippery elusive fish! But when I finally get the right words, I usually know it! Sometimes the poem will remain unfinished for days, weeks, or always, because I couldn't find that fish! I seldom settle for the good-enough word - because a good-enough word is usually not good enough.
*In your opinion, what makes a good poem?
Go to Emily Dickinson's definition.
*Do you write to try to fit the market or do you follow your heart?
That depends. I never have written anything that I did not want to write simply because I was told it would sell. On the other hand, when a book of mine has done well and the editor has suggested that I try more of the same (the YOU READ TO ME series, the SINGALONG series), I have done so with pleasure. But mostly, I get an idea for a book and I write it because I want to and if I am lucky someone wants to publish it.
* What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
Above all, spending time with my family - my husband, my children and grandchildren - and with my friends. Reading - especially poetry. Observing nature. Listening to music. Gardening. Going to concerts, movies, theatre. Travelling. Walking along the beach with our two dogs, Pico and Maria. Crossword puzzles and sudoku. In the summer a little tennis and biking. And thinking - always thinking - about words.
*How do you help to market your books?
I go to various conferences, do interviews, bookstore visits on occasion. Not so many school visits as I used to do. Pretty much I try to do what my publishers ask me to do, within reason. But I don't do nearly as much as some authors I know - I'm older, for one thing, and don't have quite the energy I used to.
*Tell us a little about how you start writing each book or poem. Does it start with the idea, or perhaps a phrase or image? Do you write quickly or do ideas sometimes take years to develop?
Most of my books start with a title. Poems with a phrase or cluster of words. Often these ideas come to me while I'm walking - it's all about rhythm and cadence. Everything I write takes time - but sometimes it's only a small amount. Other poems and books are started, get laid aside, picked up again, and eventually are concluded - or not! I have dozens of unfinished poems and stories in my files.
*Have you written in genres other than picture books and poetry?
I've written plays, both for children and adults, travel articles, essays, etc., and I just recently completed my first novel for children. But most of my publishing success has been in picture books and poetry for children.
*Tell us a little about your most recent book release (or the next one).
Three books are out this Spring and Summer:I'M GOING TO GRANDMA'S (Harcourt); MRS. O'LEARY'S COW (Little, Brown); and the 4th YOU READ TO ME book - SCARY TALES (Little, Brown, out in August).
*Which of your wonderful books is your favorite or which did you especially enjoy the process of writing?
My very favorite is a tiny little book, long out of print, that my husband Norm illustrated. It's called HELLO AND GOOD-BY and contains many of my favorite poems. I love writing the YOU READ TO ME books, especially knowing that Michael Emberley is going to illustrate them!
*Do you participate in a critique group?
Somehow writing groups have never worked for me although I've participated in one or two on occasion. Somehow the kind of writing I do goes better without any outside imput before submission. But recently, when I started writing my novel, I began to meet with one other writer whose work I respected and who is an excellent critic and that turned out to be enormously helpful, mainly by keeping my nose to the grindstone. And it's fun to talk shop!
*Whose writing do you admire? Poetry? Picture books? Novels?
Children's poets? The usual heroes: Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne. Picture books? Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, Ruth Krauss, Arnold Lobel's FROG AND TOAD, and dozens of others - it is such a rich and varied field! Novels? I'm a 19th century English fan: Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes, Dickens, Hardy. I read many modern novels, enjoy them, but seldom return to them the way I do to the English ones.
*Do you have any advice for new writers?
Write! Regularly! Do as I used to do, not as I do now. Keep a notebook and/or journal. Read! Not only children's books, indeed, not primarily children's books. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction. When something you read pleases you, try to figure out why. A good exercise for poets is to imitate a poem you like, making it about a different subject, but following its form, cadence, sentence structure, etc., exactly. This will teach you a lot and it's fun!
*A list of your favorites:
Food: Bread and butter
Music: Folk, Show, Classical
Film: Wuthering Heights w. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon
Place: Paris. The Greek Islands. Connecticut
Holiday/Event: Thanksgiving with all of our family together
Cartoon character: The Little King
Sport: Tennis, both as participant and spectator
