Biografia
Barbara Bottner, a writer and artist, has written prime time comedy, feature scripts, short stories, animated shorts, essays, book reviews and scholarly articles. Feeling drawn to children and young adult audiences, she wrote After School Specials with Arlene Sidaris and was a staff writer on a prime time CBS sitcom, Scorch. She worked for Disney as a writer on the Winnie the Pooh series and also worked on Showtime's Miss Piggle Wiggle series. Bottner and Sidaris also wrote Mama Said, a feature that is in development.
Barbara Bottner began as a painter. Designing off-Broadway sets led her to performance. As an actor, she worked with Sam Shepherd in the downtown troupe, Theater Genesis, as well as being a member of Ellen Stewart's ground breaking troupe La Mama Plexus (where Hair originated), which was directed by Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). They toured Europe, appearing in London's West End, as well as played in New York City and colleges around the country. Barbara was the subject of the short film, Time and No Time, by Rita Stafford.
Eventually, Barbara began writing and illustrating books for children, and creating children's films. She has created award-winning short films for Sesame Street and the Electric Company, and wrote lyrics for Jim Henson's Fair is Fair album for the Muppets.
Barbara has written over 40 books to date in all areas of children's literature, including Young Adult, Middle Grade, chapter and I Can Read, as well as her award-winning picture books, several have been animated and won awards, and also performed as children's theater. One of her recent titles, Miss Brooks Loves Books, was a New York Times Bestseller. She has received countless awards, has appeared on numerous "Best Of" lists for many titles, and has received children's choice awards.
Bottner has contributed to the Miami Herald's Tropic Magazine, writing about men and women in the Can't Live Without 'Em column as well as features. She was a Contributing Editor for the LA Weekly, where she wrote both humor and features, and notably interviews with outstanding figures such as Jerzy Kosinski and Joseph Losey. Her art has been used in the Op Ed section of the New York Times and in MS. Magazine. She has reviewed books for children both in the New York and LA New York Times Sunday Book Review. Her short stories have been published in Cosmopolitan and Playgirl and anthologized in two collections.
As a teacher, she won the Distinguished Teaching Award from the New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design. She has taught at UCLA, Miami Dade College, and lectured on children's literature around the country as well as well as presented at the Bologna Children's Book Fair for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Her papers are collected in the Arne Nixon Centre for Children's Literature at Fresno State.
She has staffed various conferences, and judged national contests on children's literature. Some of the most well-known in the field have thanked her publicly. Barbara still leads classes in writing for children today. From time to time, she performs 'spoken word' around Los Angeles.
