Author Study

Mary Amato

• Mary is an award winning children's and YA book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter.
• She has been honored to receive many awards and grants, including: MLA’s William G. Wilson Maryland Author Award, The Beehive Book Award, The Maud Hart Lovelace Award, The Buckeye Children’s Book Award, AZLA Young Readers’ Award, Fellowship for Children’s Novel-in-Progress, The Heekin Foundation, the Maryland State Arts Council’s Independent Artist Award, Work-in-Progress Grant from The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), SCBWI National Magazine Merit Award, National Endowment for the Arts Grant through Lima Symphony Orchestra, Target’s Arts in Education Grant, The Washington Post’s Grant in the Arts, Visiting Artist Grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland; City of Hyattsville Thrive Grant, and the Keisler Prize for Poetry, Indiana University.
• With colleague Diana Friedman, she founded the Creative Momentum Collective, a group of artists working in a variety of disciplines who meet to discuss process and progress. She is also the founder of the The HIVE, The Writer’s Studio with Mary Amato, SoHy Sing, and The Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. Arts Salon, all monthly gatherings of writers or interdisciplinary artists and musicians. She has done (or am doing) projects with lots of wonderful non-profits, including works with Ukes on the Move, Carpe Diem Arts, An Open Book Foundation, Passion for Learning, Guitars Not Guns, Friends of the Library, Notes for Notes, Montgomery County (MD) Schools, PG County Schools, Riversdale House Museum, Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, College Park Arts Exchange, and many other non-profits. She is a member of SCBWI and The Children Book Guild of Washington.

What made her become an author?

• She started writing at the age of 7 when her mother gave her a journal to keep notes on a family trip.
• She loved the fact that she could write in a journal and then read it later.

What made her choose her genre?

• Mary loved reading as a young girl and it inspired her to become a writer.
• She has over 25 books and she writes books for children and adults.
• She writes poems, plays, essays, and short fiction.
• She teaches workshops in creative writing, songwriting, and the creative process.

Facts that POP!

• When Mary was a kid she had a pet turtle that ran away and her siblings had her convinced that she was a cow.
• On top of being an amazing author to different genres, she also teaches songwriting, plays the ukulele, does shadow puppetry, and leads workshops.
• She has recieved several grants and awards as an author.
• She knew what she wanted to do with her life from a young age when she received her first journal.

Some of her books!

• The Word Eater
• The Riot Brothers
• Get Happy
• Game On
• Edgar Allan's official crime investigation notebook

My thoughts....

• I choose this author because she is a great example of " anything is possible", She has not only become a successful author, she is also a songwriter, a poet, and she does playwright. When she sets her mind to something she does it and that is truly inspiring.

References

• Bio. (n.d.). Mary Amato. Retrieved October 6, 2023, from https://www.maryamato.com/about-mary-amato/#:~:text=Bio%20for%20Grown%2DUps
• Mary Amato | Maryland State Arts Council. (2023). Msac.org; Maryland State Arts Council. https://msac.org/directory/artists/mary-amato
• Amato, M. (2012). Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook. Holiday House.