Summer divides her time between Trinidad and Maryland, United States. Since stepping down as Anansesem's editor-in-chief, she has worked as a children's fiction editor at Heinemann and was appointed Young Readers' Editor at Kirkus Reviews. She is a contributor to the young adult nonfiction anthology 1789: What is a Person? (Candlewick Press, 2020), edited by Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and her first children's book, The Wonder of the World Leaf, was published by HarperCollins UK in 2021. She holds an M.Ed. degree in Reading, Writing, Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania where she studied children's and adolescent literature under the advisership of the late Dr. Lawrence Sipe. She is a Highlights Foundation scholarship recipient, a former judging chair of the Golden Baobab prizes for African children's literature, and a 2019/2020 National Writing Juror in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She served on the Evaluation Committee for the inaugural OpenIDEO Early Childhood Book Challenge sponsored by The William Penn Foundation. She is an invited member of the Children's Literature & Reading Special Interest Group of the International Literacy Association and the recipient of the School of the Free Mind's Way of the Book Honor Award given to artist-authors demonstrating long and sincere commitment to changing the world through children's books.
A leading authority on Caribbean children's and YA literature, she has been an invited speaker at New York University, St. Francis College, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the US Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair, and The University of Puerto Rico, and has been recruited as a Caribbean children's literature consultant, readers' advisory expert and children's/YA book editor by organizations including the Commonwealth Education Trust, At Summit Educational Services, the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE), and Caribbean Cultural Theatre, among others. Her fiction, poems and art for both adult and child audiences have been published in various journals and anthologies. A former university tutor, she has worked as a readers' advisory specialist at EBSCOHost NoveList, and a contributor/book reviewer at The Horn Book Magazine. Find out more at her website, www.summeredward.com, or follow her on Goodreads.
A leading authority on Caribbean children's and YA literature, she has been an invited speaker at New York University, St. Francis College, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the US Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair, and The University of Puerto Rico, and has been recruited as a Caribbean children's literature consultant, readers' advisory expert and children's/YA book editor by organizations including the Commonwealth Education Trust, At Summit Educational Services, the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE), and Caribbean Cultural Theatre, among others. Her fiction, poems and art for both adult and child audiences have been published in various journals and anthologies. A former university tutor, she has worked as a readers' advisory specialist at EBSCOHost NoveList, and a contributor/book reviewer at The Horn Book Magazine. Find out more at her website, www.summeredward.com, or follow her on Goodreads.
Emily Aguiló-Pérez, PhD, Managing Editor, reviews and edits submissions by Anansesem's Country Correspondents.
Emily Aguiló-Pérez was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she lived until 2012. She moved to Pennsylvania for her PhD studies and is currently an Assistant Professor of English (Children’s Literature) at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and research are in the areas of children’s literature (particularly Latinx and Puerto Rican children's literature), girlhood studies, and children’s cultures. Her published work has focused on girlhood as represented in literature and Puerto Rican girls’ identity formation with Barbie dolls. Her essays, book reviews and articles have been published in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures journal, Oxford Bibliographies in Childhood Studies, The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Books journal, Global Studies of Childhood journal, Children & Society journal, on the Latinxs in Kid Lit blog, and more. She has presented research on Latinx children’s books at various conferences regionally and internationally, and has served on children’s book award committees such as the 2017 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the 2018 Pura Belpré Award. She is part of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s “A Baker’s Dozen” committee which annually identifies the top 13 picture books in the USA that fulfill the goals of family literacy programs for preschoolers.
Kelsi Farrington, M.A., Associate Editor, reviews and responds to fiction and poetry submissions we receive from adults.
Kelsi grew up on a 3-mile-long island in the Bahamas. At 17, she moved to rural Wales to go to college which led to studying near the craggy coastlines of Cornwall. At Falmouth University, she received a First Class Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism. Now based in London, England, she worked as a research paper publisher at Oxfam and in the Book Sales and Marketing department at New Internationalist Publications Ltd. while completing her Masters in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. Her past experience ranges from being a PR assistant and Ambassador at Falmouth University, an editor for an online magazine and co-founder of another called Frais. In 2015, she enjoyed working the Tara Books children's book booth at the London Art Book Fair and presented her research proposal at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Her idea, to create a collection of fact-based, illustrated ebooks for children in developing countries, was enthusiastically received. She is especially interested in fighting malnutrition and gender inequality through children's publishing. Prior to her current role as Production Editor at New Internationalist, she worked as an Editorial and Marketing Assistant at Positive News, the constructive journalism magazine.
Colin Bootman, Art Editor, reviews and responds to art submissions we receive from both kids and adults.
Colin was born in Trinidad and Tobago where he now resides after living in Brooklyn, United States for many years. He has illustrated many children’s books, textbooks, periodicals, and book covers and has worked with several publishers including Random House (Follow the Leader), Harper Collins (In My Momma’s Kitchen), Scholastic (Oh, No, Toto!), and Holiday House (Papa’s Mark). Nominated for an NAACP Image Award for an Outstanding Literary Work for Children, he is the recipient of numerous children's book awards including the Coretta Scott King Honor 2004, the Schneider Family Book Award 2006, the Ashley Bryan Lifetime Achievement Honor 2006, The Teachers’ Choice Award, The Comstock Award, The Storytelling World Award, The Golden Kite Honor, and many others. Mr. Bootman’s first written and Illustrated book (Fish For The Grand Lady), debuted in the fall of 2006. In addition to illustrating, Colin enjoys teaching and presenting to students throughout the country. His professional website is www.colinbootman.net.
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