Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!

I am getting really excited. Tonight’s the night. The PAS North Shore Council of the International Reading Association will hold its winter dinner meeting in Salem, Massachusetts. I have been trying to arrange for tonight’s guest speaker to address our membership for three years. This guest speaker is one of my favorite authors. He has published more than one hundred books. He has written books for people of all ages. He has also written books in a variety of literary genres—including poetry, biographies, nonfiction, historical fiction, and fantasy.

Over the years, this superman has had a profusion of honors bestowed upon him. He is an award-winning Native American storyteller. He was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Virginia Hamilton Award for his body of work. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. His other honors include a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, and the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature.

I will have the honor of introducing this distinguished gentleman. I have been working diligently on my introduction. I want to get it just right.

Don’t you wish you could join us this evening?

Can you guess who’s coming to our council dinner?

4 comments:

Anna Alter said...

Who could it be??? Do tell.

Elaine Magliaro said...

Anna,

I plan to write up a post about our speaker. I just hope the pictures I took are good. Actually, the author is coming to my class at Boston University on Thursday. Come join us. Email me or call me if you want information.

By the way, he did a fantastic presentation! And he didn't need any high tech equipment.

Tricia said...

Hi Elaine,
I'm so excited for you. Is it Joseph Bruchac? I absolutely love Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back and Keepers of the Earth (no surprise there).

I so wish I lived in MA. I would love to hear him. I can't wait to read your post.

Regards,
Tricia

Elaine Magliaro said...

Tricia,

It is Joseph Bruchac. Lucky me! I get to spend time with him again tomorrow. And next week his older son Jim is going to be in the area--so I'll be having dinner with him next Wednesday. Jim is also an excellent storyteller and is wonderful with children. Jim co-wrote some Native American tales with his father. My favorite is HOW CHIPMUNK GOT HIS STRIPES.