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Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow lives in Hastings-on-Hudson's, New York. Her career in children's literature includes many years with HarperCollins. In 1987, she became Editorial Consultant to Harper Junior Books and Editorial Director of her own imprint, "Charlotte Zolotow Books". Her books include The Storm Book, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham, and the winner of a 1953 Caldecott Honor. Contemporary children will be familiar with William's Doll, illustrated by William Pene du Bois, 1972 and Early Sorrow: Ten Stories for Youth, 1986. Mrs. Zolotow has been given many awards including the Harper Gold Medal Award for Editorial Excellence, the University of Minnesota's 1968 Irwin Kerlan Award and the University of Southern Mississipp's 1990 Silver Medallion and a 1991 American Library Association resolution expressing gratitude for her contributions. Mrs. Zolotow is a native of Norfolk, Virginia, studied literature at the University of Wisconsin, and has two children.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do you like to play music? If so, what instrument do you play?

   I particularly enjoy listening to music, but I do not play any instrument.

2. How do you come up with your ideas?

   The world is so full of exciting people and events and relationships some lovely, some awful, some funny, that ideas are everywhere. It's finding a form to put them in that's difficult.

3. Are you still writing books?

   Yes I am still writing books. The most recently published by HarperCollins are WHEN THE WIND STOPS and THE OLD DOG.

4. How old were you when you began writing?

   I began writing in the fourth grade when a wonderful teacher encouraged me.

5. How long did it take for you to create THE STORM?

   THE STORM BOOK like any book swirls around in uncounted time in one's head before it takes shape as a book.

6. Of the books you have written, what is your favorite?

   I care about each book in a different way so none of them could be a favorite.

7. How often do you write your books?

   A writer is always writing books inside him or herself.

8. What do you do in your spare time?

   I don't consider it "spare" time that I spend in the garden, on indoor plants, listening to music, reading books, seeing friends, listening to the wind.....no time is "spare".

9. What started your career as a writer?

   My fourth grade teacher; Helen C. White, my college writing teacher; Ursula Nordstrom my editor and friend and the one who published my first book, THE PARK BOOK.

10. Do you choose the illustrators for your books?

    An editor really chooses the illustrator for each story.

11. What do you enjoy most about being an editor?

    Being an editor makes a person go into other people's minds, and so extends the life experience of one's own.