
A Bridport Prize-winning poet, Emma recently published a poetry collection entitled Door to lớn Door (Andrews McMeel Publishing). Her book for parents & caregivers, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure & Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won a Parent’s Choice Gold Medal, silver medals from the Living Now and IPPY Book Awards, & an Honorable Mention from ForeWord Magazine’s Best Book of the Year.
Emma was a two-time Emmy Award nominee for her role as Executive Producer & Writer for Julie’s Greenroom, a children’s television program about the performing arts created for Netflix, starring Julie Andrews and co-produced by the Jim Henson Company. She is also a Grammy Award-winning voice-over artist, having provided voicing for numerous audiobooks, including Gitty Daneshvari’s School of Fear, Patrick McDonnell’s Me…Jane, Nancy Tafuri’s All Kinds of Kisses, Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies (2010 Grammy Award, Best Spoken Word Album for Children), and Julie Andrews Treasury for All Seasons: Poems & Songs lớn Celebrate the Year, in addition to numerous radio, television, theater & industrial spots. She & her mother co-host và co-produce Julie’s Library, a story-time podcast for family audiences produced by American Public Media. Emma also serves as Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection publishing program, dedicated to quality books for young readers that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder.
Other mediums Emma has written for include tuy vậy lyrics và stage and symphonic adaptions of her children’s books. A symphonic adaptation of Simeon’s Gift was developed at bay Street Theatre và went on tour khổng lồ the Hollywood Bowl, Atlanta Symphony và the O2 Arena in the UK, among other venues, under the banner of Julie Andrews’ Gift of Music. Julie và Emma’s middle grade novel, The Great American Mousical, was adapted into a family musical và produced by Goodspeed Musicals at the Norma Terris Theatre in East Haddam, Connecticut. Emma’s tuy nhiên lyrics have been recorded by Laughing Pizza, và her poetry has been published for STAAR – the State of Texas’ Assessments of Academic Readiness, in the Society of Children’s Book Writers và Illustrators’ (SCBWI) Bulletin, in both anthologies published in the Julie Andrews Collection và in the 2021 Bridport Prize Anthology.
Since 2008, Emma has been a faculty member for Stony Brook University’s MFA in Creative Writing và Literature Program, where she teaches children’s literature courses và serves as Director of the Children’s Literature Fellows program as well as the annual Southampton Children’s Literature Conference. She is also Executive Director of their Young Artists & Writers Project (YAWP), an inter-disciplinary writing and creative arts program for middle and high school students on Long Island.
Independently, Emma offers home-study courses và other products and resources for writers at her website, giasuviet.edu.vn. She is also the co-creator of Picture Book Summit, the world-class, annual online conference for picture book writers, and The Complete Picture Book Submissions System.
Prior lớn becoming a published author, Emma worked as an actress in theater, film & television, and as a theatrical director and producer. She is a longtime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre & was a faculty thành viên at their Institute for several years. In 1991, she co-founded the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, new york with her husband, Stephen Hamilton và producer Sybil Christopher. Emma served as cất cánh Street’s Co-Artistic Director and Director of Education and Programming for Young Audiences for 17 years.
An accomplished public speaker, Emma addresses conferences, schools, universities và other groups on a regular basis about the value of, and synergy between, the arts & literacy.
Emma is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Author’s Guild, The Dramatists’ Guild, The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, the International Reading Association, SAG, AEA, AFTRA và ASCAP. She is on of the Board of Advisors of the Sag Harbor Cinema, and has served on the theater panel for the thủ đô new york State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), as a National Ambassador for The Broadway League’s “Kids’ Night on Broadway”, & as a trustee for the Morriss Center School in Bridgehampton, NY, the Center for Therapeutic Riding of the East end (CTREE) & most recently the Sag Harbor Partnership, dedicated to lớn the preservation and enhancement of the quality of life in Sag Harbor, NY.
Emma pursued her undergraduate degree in theater at Brown University, và received her MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY, with her husband, director/actor/acting coach Steve Hamilton, and their two children, Sam & Hope.