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BiographyLaban Carrick Hill's newest book America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s recently won the 2007 Parenting Publications Gold Award. The New York Times Book Review wrote, "Excellent." Howard Zinn praised the cultural history as "a phenomenal piece of work, extensively researched and visually stimulating; an essential resource for children and adults of all ages." America Dreaming examines the legacy of the sixties, and how the events that took place then inform our lives today. Hill is the author of more than 25 books, including the 2004 National Book Award Finalist Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance, a book he researched for more than a decade. He was drawn to this era because the Harlem Renaissance seemed to embody Ralph Ellison’s sense that America could not be America without African Americans. In his essay “What America Would be Like Without Blacks,” Ellison wrote “…whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black.” Harlem Stomp! is the result of Hill’s research and work. Hill has also taught writing at Columbia University, Baruch College, and St. Michael’s College in Vermont. He is currently teaching at Pine Manor College Solstice MFA in Writing Program and at Vermont College Adult Undergraduate Degree Program. In 2008, Hill's poem Dave the Potter will be illustrated by acclaimed artist Bryan Collier and published as a picture book. His most recent novel is A Brush with Napoleon, published by Watson Guptil in 2007. His young adult novel, Casa Azul, based on the Frida Kahlo painting Self Portrait (with Monkey and Hummingbird) was selected as a New York Public Library 2006 Book for the Teen Age. His poems have been included in the Contemporary Poetry of New England anthology and in numerous literary magazines, including Tar River Review, the Denver Quarterly, and American Letters & Commentary. His Reader’s Companion to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (SparkNotes) appeared in print in 2003. He has also written critical biographies for Scribners American Writers and British Writers series on J. M. Coetzee, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Jane Kenyon. |
Selected Works1. Nonfiction
America Dreaming
How Youth Changed America
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.” --George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC 2. Fiction
A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David. Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio 3. Poetry
Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Contemporary Poetry of New England
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’” --from the Introduction 4. Middle Grade Series
Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened. |
