Sylvia Vardell

Sylvia Vardell is Professor Emerita in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University where she taught courses in literature for children and young adults. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 published articles, more than 25 book chapters and given more than 150 presentations at national and international conferences. She authored the seminal textbook in library science, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION: A LIBRARIAN'S GUIDE, as well as POETRY ALOUD HERE!, A WORLD FULL OF POEMS, and co-edited The Poetry Friday Anthology series and Poetry Friday Power Book series (with Janet Wong) and maintains the PoetryForChildren blog.

She served as co-editor of the international journal, BOOKBIRD and on several national award committees including the ALA Caldecott Award, Legacy Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction, and the NCTE Award for Poetry. She has received grants from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, NCTE, the ALAN Foundation, the Texas Library Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also taught at the University of Zimbabwe in Africa as a Fulbright scholar. She is the 2014 recipient of the Scholastic Library Publishing Award. In her spare time, she loves to travel, shop, all things Star Wars, and sees 100+ movies a year.