Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books? (Geschichte der Gegenwart)

Why are people afraid of multicultural children’s books?  To answer that question, I look back to the roots of American censorship — which, as you doubtless know, has been enjoying a renaissance lately.  My piece makes its debut today in Geschichte der Gegenwart, a Swiss publication the title of which means History of the Present. That’s

Golan Moskowitz, Wild Visionary

Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context

If you missed this book launch today, please do check it out! On-hand was MIT Prof. Marah Gubar (children’s literature scholar extraordinaire), Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked), Brian Selznick (author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret), and of course Golan Moskowitz himself. It’s a pretty big deal to gather such a constellation of luminaries for a book

Ursula Nordstrom, 1969

In or Out?: Crockett Johnson, Ruth Krauss, Sexuality, Biography

As I wait to hear back from my editor (latest revision submitted January 1st), I continue to tinker with the biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss.  Does my manuscript’s silence on the homosexuality of two important figures – Maurice Sendak (who illustrated nine of Ruth’s books) and Ursula Nordstrom (editor of Ruth, Dave, Maurice) –