Becoming Ezra Jack Keats
Becoming Ezra Jack Keats offers the first complete biography of acclaimed children’s author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats (1916–1983) intended for adult readers. Drawing extensively from his unpublished autobiography and letters, Becoming Ezra Jack Keats covers the breadth of Keats’s life, taking readers through his early years as the child of immigrant parents, his introduction to illustration and writing, and the full arc of his remarkable career.
Beyond a standard biography, this volume presents a time capsule of the political, social, and economic issues evolving during the span of Keats’s lifetime. It also addresses his trailblazing commitment to representation and diversity, most notably in his work The Snowy Day, which won the Caldecott Medal as the first full-color picture book to feature a Black child as the protagonist. Keats far surpassed his father’s prediction that he would be a starving artist. Instead, as shown in Becoming Ezra Jack Keats, he is now regarded as one of the most influential figures in children’s literature, having published twenty-two books translated into sixteen languages, all featuring the diversity he saw in the children outside the window of his Brooklyn studio.
Links to reviews:
Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/becoming-ezra-jack-keats-review-beyond-a-snowy-day-74bb6662
School Library Journal’s Fuse 8: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/25/becoming-ezra-jack-keats-virginia-mcgee-butler-discusses-the-creation-of-his-first-full-biography/
Thema Literary Magazine
“That You, Beulah Rose?” Autumn 2023
“World War I Postcard,” Spring 2022
“Which Virginia?” Autumn 2021
“Bridging the Gap,” Autumn 2020
“Monster Morning Glories,” Summer 2020
“The Face in the Photograph,” Summer 2018
“The Missing Letters,” Summer 2017
“The Printer’s Out of Ink,” Spring 2015
“Borrowed Eyes,” Autumn 2013
“A Change in Plans,” Summer 2011
“Katrina’s Aftermath,” Autumn 2008
One might conclude that I love to write for Thema Literary Magazine – and be correct. The challenge to take a theme and figure out what it means to me and a way to express that in the words of a poem, essay, or story makes my mind hum and my fingers tingle. (I also love to read and see what the other writers do with the theme.) The magazine might be a good fit for you if you like the challenge of writing to an unusual theme in each issue or reading the imaginative takes of others. You can check their website here.
Book Editing
Editor of A Gypsy Dreaming in Jerusalem by Amoun Sleem; published by Nurturing Faith, 2014
Children and Youth Magazines
Cricket Magazine, “Rags and Riches,” September 2011
Highlights for Children, “Celebrate Variety,” February 2005, reprinted in three publications
Guide, “Anna Gives Up,” February 14, 2004
Educational Publication
Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, “Eleven Life Lessons Learned at the 2000 International Convention,” Summer 2001
Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, “Youth Tutoring Youth: An Edge for At-Risk High School and Elementary Students,” Summer 1992
Church Curriculum
Writer for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship children’s curriculum, September 2000 – 2010
Heritage Seekers, lead writer of the magazine on Anabaptists, July 2006
Faithsteps, Smyth and Helwys Sunday school for middle children, June 2005
Faithsteps, Smyth and Helwys Sunday school for older children, December 2004
Bible Study for Passportkids, Summer 2004
Religious Publications
Reflections, One or two weeks annually, Daily Devotionals, 2001 – 2008, 2017
Today’s Christian, “No Room at the Inn,” Nov/Dec 2008 with reprint in The Illinois Baptist, December 2012;
Lifeglow, “Borrowed Eyes,” February 2004, reprinted in The Lutheran Digest, Summer 2008 and in Thema, Autumn 2013
Baptists Today, “The Big Apple,” December 2001
Anthologies
Cup of Comfort for Families Touched by Alzheimer’s, “Forgetting, Remembering,” October 2008
Cup of Comfort for Sisters, “The Problem with Paybacks,” October 2004
Writing Magazines
The Writer, “Ranking Rejection,” December 2017
SCBWI Bulletin, “Preserving the Process,” March/April 2009
Once Upon a Time, “Moving Closer to Eudora?” Winter, 2007; “First Pothole on My Writing Highway,” Fall, 2005
Byline, Great American Bookstore, “Main Street Books,” November 2004
The Writer, winner of First Paragraph Contest, Spring, 1999