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In 1987, with a band
of friends and colleagues formerly associated with the Simmons College
Center for the Study of Children's Literature, Gregory Maguire helped
cofound Children's Literature New England, Incorporated (known generally
as CLNE). Organized for nonprofit as an educational charity, CLNE states
as its mission to elevate awareness of the significance of literature in
the lives of children. To that end, it mounts annual one-week institutes
in which teachers, librarians, college professors, writers, illustrators,
and people in publishing gather to consider children's books in the light
of serious literary themes. Some of the more memorable themes have
included Worlds Apart, held at Keble College, Oxford, in 1992.
Swords and Ploughshares, held at Harvard University, Cambridge, in
1994. Writing the World: Myth as Metaphor, held at Trinity College,
Dublin, in 1995. The Green Prehuman Earth, held at Silver Bay, Lake
George, New York, in 2000. Considering Boundaries, held at Victoria
University, Toronto, in 2001.
While a small operation — bootstrap, really — CLNE attracts to its programs a stellar band of professionals on both sides of the podium. Recent speakers have included: Novelists Jill Paton Walsh, John Rowe Townsend, Susan Cooper, Katherine Paterson, Virginia Hamilton, Margaret Mahy, Sarah Ellis, Natalie Babbitt, and Ursula K. LeGuin; Illustrators Maurice Sendak, Paul O. Zelinsky, Brian Pinkney, Vera B. Williams, and Tom Feelings; Editors and publishers Margaret K. McElderry, Susan Hirschman, Mimi Kayden, and Virginia Buckley; Poets Ashley Bryan, Naomi Shihab Nye, and William Jay Smith; Professors Tony Watkins, Sven Birkets, and Martin Green. For more information on upcoming CLNE programs, contact Gregory Maguire at gm@gregorymaguire.com or go to the CLNE website at clne.org.
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