Meet Emma
EMMA WALTON HAMILTON is an author, editor, arts educator and arts and literacy advocate. She has co-authored twenty children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, five of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including the recent anthology Julie Andrews’ Collection Of Poems, Songs And Lullabies (illustrated by James McMullan); the Dumpy The Dump Truck series of picture books, board books and Early Readers (illustrated by Tony Walton); the original fable Simeon’s Gift; The Great American Mousical and THANKS TO YOU – Wisdom From Mother And Child (#1 New York Times Bestseller). Emma’s own book, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won two silver medals from the Living Now and IPPY Book Awards in the parenting category. It also received Honorable Mention from ForeWord Magazine’s Best Book of the Year.
Emma is Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection (formerly with Harper Collins, now with Little Brown Books for Young Readers), a publishing program dedicated to quality books for young readers that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder. In addition, she is a faculty member for Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Writing and Literature Program, where she serves as Director of their annual Children’s Literature Conference, Co-Director of the Playwriting Conference, and Executive Director of YAWP (the Young American Writers Project), an inter-disciplinary writing program for middle and high school students on Long Island.
A former actress, Emma worked in theater, film and television for ten years before turning her attention towards directing, producing, educating and writing. She was a faculty member at the Ensemble Studio Theater Institute, then became one of the founders of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York. She served as Bay Street’s Co-Artistic Director for thirteen years, at which point she chose to focus her energies on the Theatre’s educational and young audiences programs. Until 2008, her role there encompassed bringing theater to young people on Long Island and in New York City as Director of Education and Programming for Young Audiences.
In addition to writing and editing children’s books, both for the Julie Andrews Collection and independently, Emma also works as a freelance children’s book editor and teaches courses in writing for children, both for Stony Brook Southampton and online. Her blog, Emmasaries: Raising the Next Generation of Readers and Writers, can be found at http://www.emmawaltonhamilton.com/blog.
Emma is also an accomplished public speaker, addressing arts and literary conferences, schools, universities and other groups on a regular basis about the value of, and synergy between, the arts and literacy. She also enjoys doing voice-over work, and has provided voicing for audiobooks (including Gitty Daneshvari’s School of Fear) as well as for radio, television, theater and industrial spots. She has co-written lyrics for several songs, including “The Show Must Go On” recorded by Julie Andrews, and “On My Way” recorded by Laughing Pizza, and selections of her poetry are included in Julie Andrews’ Collection Of Poems, Songs And Lullabies. Recently, Emma and her mother completed stage and symphonic adaptations of Simeon’s Gift, which was produced at Bay Street Theatre in 2007, and which went on symphonic tour to venues including the Hollywood Bowl and the Atlanta Symphony during the summer of 2008 as part of Julie Andrews’ Gift of Music. It is scheduled to tour Europe (including the O2 Arena in the UK) as well as Australia and Japan in 2010.
Emma is a member of the Author’s Guild, The Dramatists’ Guild, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the International Reading Association, SAG, AEA, AFTRA and ASCAP. She has served on the theater panel for the New York State Council on the Arts, as a National Ambassador for The Broadway League’s “Kids’ Night on Broadway”, and as a trustee for the Morriss Center School in Bridgehampton, NY.
She lives in Sag Harbor, NY, with her husband, producer/actor Steve Hamilton and their two children.
