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Children's Writer
Louise Gikow is an Emmy award-winning author/composer. She has published a number of books with The Jim Henson Company for several properties including: Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock and The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. For television, she has written for the US/Israeli co-production Shalom Sesame, and the Sesame Workshop/Berlitz International co-production Sesame English. She has also written for Between the Lions. Louise is also the co-creator of Johnny and the Sprites. As a composer, she has written music and lyrics for the Sing Along with Kermit and Friends series of book and tape sets. As part of Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2009, Louise wrote and edited Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street.
Click below to listen to 10 minute interview.
Resources
1. The Jim Henson Company: www.henson.com
2. New York Women in Film & Television: www.nywift.org
3. National Writers Union: www.nwu.org
4. Women in Children's Media: www.womeninchildrensmedia.org
5. More about Louise Gikow on ToughPigs.com: http://toughpigs.com/2009/10/chat-with-louise-gikow-part-2.html
About Louise Gikow
Louise Gikow is a writer who has published a number of books with The Jim Henson Company for several properties including Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock and The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. For television, Gikow has written for the US/Israeli co-production Shalom Sesame, and the Sesame Workshop/Berlitz International co-production Sesame English. She has also written for Between the Lions (for which she won an Emmy in 2009) and is the co-creator of Johnny and the Sprites (with John Tartaglia).
Gikow has adapted several Henson productions into storybook form, including Labyrinth, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Several of her Muppet Babies books have also been adapted as storybook videos. As a composer, she has written music and lyrics for the Sing Along with Kermit and Friends series of book and tape sets. In 1986, she served as a script consultant on Muppet Babies Live! Several of these books were written under the pseudonyms "Emily Paul" and "Rebecca Grand."
During the 1980s, she served as senior editor for Muppet Magazine and wrote several articles and comics including the recurring "Miss Piggy's Advice" column. In 1993, she authored a biography of Jim Henson called Meet Jim Henson. Also in the 1990s, she co-authored The Muppets Make Puppets! with Cheryl Henson and the Muppet Workshop, Miss Piggy's Rules with Jim Lewis, For Every Child, A Better World with Ellen Weiss and two large-format children's stories adaptations featuring poser puppets of the Muppet Babies, Muppet Babies' Classic Children's Tales and Muppet Babies' Classic Nursery Rhymes.
As part of Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2009, Gikow wrote and edited Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street.
From www.Muppet.Wikia.com: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Louise_Gikow
Travel Writer
Tom Brosnahan, founder and owner of Travel Info Exchange, Inc., knows travel information: how to research, compose, and sequence it to guide travelers and help them to find their way.
He started as a travel guidebook writer in 1968. Since then his travel guidebooks have sold nearly four million copies worldwide in more than ten languages, and his articles and photographs appear regularly in top travel periodicals in North America and Europe. He counts among his consultancy clients a number of major corporations, publishers, foundations and government entities. He has also appeared on major television and radio programs.
Click below to listen to 10 minute interview.
Resources
1. Writers Website Planner: www.writerswebsiteplanner.com
2. Society of American Travel Writers: www.satw.org
3. Transitions Abroad: www.transitionsabroad.com
About Tom Brosnahan
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Tom joined the US Peace Corps after graduating from Tufts University in 1967, and went to Turkey to teach English. During his Peace Corps service he learned to speak Turkish fluently, and spent his weekends and vacations traveling throughout the country. He discovered a beautiful, fascinating land which was virtually unknown in the United States. Tom wrote his first guidebook, Turkey on $5 a Day, as a Peace Corps project. The book was accepted for publication by Arthur Frommer in 1970, and went through seven editions, its final one being Turkey '92-'93 on $40 a Day.
Tom returned home from Peace Corps service in 1970 and entered the Tufts University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences on a US Title V Fellowship, anticipating a doctoral degree and a college teaching career in history. After passing his doctoral exams, Tom was granted a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship, and went to Istanbul for 15 months' research in the Ottoman archives reading medieval Turkish legal documents.
Upon his return to the United States from the Fulbright in 1976, he gradually discovered that a career in travel was more promising and appealing than one in academia, so he left the university to devote himself to writing, photography and consulting full-time. His 30 guidebooks for Insight, Berlitz, Frommer's and Lonely Planet cover Belize, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, New England, Tunisia and Turkey. Some of these guides have been translated into more than ten languages.
Tom Brosnahan has served as a Contributing Editor to Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine, and has had many articles and photographs published in leading magazines and newspapers such as ASTA Travel News, BBC World, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph (London), Diversion, New York Daily News, New York Times, Odyssey, Travel & Leisure, Travel Life and TWA Ambassador. He has also served as the North American representative and commissioning editor for TravelIntelligence.com based in London, UK.
He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including ABC's Good Morning America, NPR's Talk of the Nation, the Travel Channel and PRI's The Connection. He has given lectures at the American Turkish Council's annual conference, the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, and other organizations.
He has been a consultant on tourism, public relations and online publication to Arriva World Tours, AT&T, Burson-Marsteller, Discovery Communications, Hill & Knowlton, Nabila Tours & Cruises (a division of Naggar Travel Group), Orion-Tour, Pacha Tours, the Quincentennial Foundation of Istanbul, Strategic Interactive Group, the Turkish Embassy, the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, Tursem Tours International, Travel in Style, Inc., and other organizations.
In February 1994, Tom founded the Travel Info Exchange™, an online travel information service with special conferences for travel authors. The Travel Info Exchange was the recipient of the gold medal in the Electronic Media category of the Society of American Travel Writers' 1994 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. In 2004 his TurkeyTravelPlanner.com website received Honorable Mention in the same competition. His travel websites now receive nearly four million visits annually, according to Google Analytics.
He is the author of Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea, a humorous travel memoir.
Tom is a co-founder of the Society of American Travel Writers' Institute for Travel Writing and Photography. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Society of American Travel Writers, and a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union.
Teen Freelance Writer
Allie Sakowicz is a 15 year old freelance writer from the Chicago area. She has written over 30 articles that have been published in both regional and national magazines including Odyssey Magazine, Scrubs Magazine and Chicago Parent. She’s also a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, which has taken her on some amazing assignments, including attending President Obama's Election Night and Super Tuesday parties, the premiere of "High School Musical 3" in Los Angeles, the Olympic Media Summit in Chicago and a rally for Senator John McCain.
Click below to listen to 10 minute interview.
Resources
1. Allie Sakowicz’s website: www.alliesakowicz.com
2. Allie’s email: allie@alliesakowicz.com
3. Scholastic Kids Press Corps: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/press_corps/index.asp
4. Children’s Writers & Illustrators Message Board: http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?www
5. Liana Mahoney's Resource List: http://www.lianamahoney.com/8.html
6. Teen Ink: www.teenink.com
7. Publisher's Marketplace: www.publishersmarketplace.com
About Allie Sakowicz
Allie Sakowicz is a 15 year old freelance writer from the Chicago area. She has written over 30 articles that have been published in both regional and national magazines including Odyssey Magazine, Scrubs Magazine and Chicago Parent. She’s also a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, which has taken her on some amazing assignments, including attending President Obama's Election Night and Super Tuesday parties, the premiere of "High School Musical 3" in Los Angeles, the Olympic Media Summit in Chicago and a rally for Senator John McCain.
Even though Allie loves to write, her true passion lies in the medical field. She aspires to be an OB/GYN and is currently in training to certify as a birth doula. She hopes to obtain certification by the end of 2009. In her (sparse) free time, she enjoys playing badminton and tennis, and reading something other than medical textbooks.