JoAnn Early Macken

Welcome to my web site! I write poetry, picture books, nonfiction, and novels for children and young adults. I am a graduate of the M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I speak about poetry and writing at schools, libraries, and conferences, and I received the Barbara Juster Esbensen 2000 Poetry Teaching Award.

My brand-new rhyming picture book, Waiting Out the Storm, is now available from Candlewick Press. Susan Gaber created the gorgeous, perfect illustrations. Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move, a nonfiction picture book, describes the many ways seeds travel. Pam Paparone illustrated it, and Holiday House published it in 2008.

In spring 2011, Disney-Hyperion Books will publish Baby Says, "Moo!", a cumulative rhyming picture book with adorable illustrations by David Walker.

My rhyming picture book Sing-Along Song, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, was published by Viking in 2004. My first picture book, Cats on Judy, was illustrated by Judith DuFour Love and published in 1997 by Whispering Coyote Press/​Charlesbridge Publishing.

My poems have been published in Cricket, Ladybug, Highlights for Children, and the anthology Stories from Where We Live: The Great Lakes. My article "Writing for the School and Library Market" appears in the 2006 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market. "Writing for Beginning Readers" appears in the 2008 edition, and "Fiction Inspired by Reality: Put Some Life in Your Work" appears in the 2009 edition. I've written more than one hundred nonfiction books for school and library publishers, and I also write test passages and classroom reading material for educational publishers and developers.

I live in Shorewood,Wisconsin, with my husband and our two sons. I teach part time in the English Department at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee. Besides writing, I enjoy reading, walking, gardening, canoeing, and photography.

For more about me, my books, author visit programs, poetry, and news, click the links at the top of this page. Thanks for stopping by!