The Children’s Book Review | August 6, 2014
Anna was born in the Bronx and grew up on Long Island where she spent much of her free time reading TV Guide, Teen Beat magazine, Archie comics, and going to the movies at the local multiplex. After graduating with honors from Tufts University with a degree in International Relations and Asian Studies, she went on to work as a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think tank in Manhattan.
Despite the allure of the world of international policy, Anna went back to her first love of film and television. She moved to Los Angeles and received her M.F.A in Film/Video Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. While at USC, Anna won a scholarship for Excellence in Screenwriting and directed a short documentary as her thesis film, “not black or white,” an irreverent look at media stereotypes of Asian woman. Anna participated in the Sundance Institute’s prestigious Screenwriters Lab with her first feature script, The Lost Tribe of Long Island, and was also selected to participate in Film Independent’s Screenwriters and Directors Labs.
Besides writing and reading, Anna loves a hearty meal, a belly laugh, and a solid nap. Anna lives in New Jersey with her husband, New Yorker cartoonist Christopher Weyant, and their two daughters.
You wrote it because …
Children notice and point out differences all the time, and it’s natural. But hopefully as we mature, we learn that all individuals are unique and that everyone is “different.” When I was about seven or eight years old, I remember saying to my mother, “I’m not ‘yellow,’ I’m ‘skin-colored.’” To me, I was just me. After spending time living in Korea and Japan where, for the first time, I looked like everyone else, I saw that I wasn’t necessarily “different” at all. There was a whole world of people who looked just like me, including the people on TV, on billboards, and in books. I realized that the kids back home could be seen as “different” by someone in Asia. This was a huge revelation for me: that our perspective is subjective and not necessarily the whole picture.
Best moment …
In my life, I have three: the day my older daughter was born, the day my younger daughter was born, and the day our agent, Holly McGhee, called to say our book sold.
Your special place to write …
In the kitchen, next to the sink.
Necessary writing/creativity tool …
Small notebooks and blue pens, jelly beans, Swedish Fish. Naps.
Favorite bookshop …
Any used bookstore.
Currently reading …
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
All-time favorite children’s book you didn’t write…
The Giving Tree, The Snowy Day, When the Relatives Came.
An author you idol …
Harper Lee, Kate DiCamillo, Cynthia Rylant, Linda Sue Park, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jane Austen.
Favorite illustrator …
Christopher Weyant, of course!
A literary character to vacation with …
Anne Shirley, Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web.
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