Pinkneys Will Make Festival A Family Affair

April 6, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

This 2006 Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, to be held April
20-22, will welcome a number of celebrated African-American authors and
illustrators. Notable among them are four members of the same family: Jerry,
Gloria, Myles C. and Sandra Pinkney.

"The Pinkneys are sort of a dynasty in the world of children's publishing,"
explains Calvin English professor Don Hettinga, a member of the festival
committee.

The patriarch of the family, Jerry Pinkney, has illustrated more than 100
books for children since 1964 in his distinctive mottled watercolor style,
among them Black Cowboy, Wild Horses, Sam and the Tigers and The Patchwork
Quilt.

He has created art for the United States Postal Service Black Heritage stamps
and the 2005 National Book Festival, has had more than 20 retrospective shows
of his work at major U.S. venues, and has taught illustration and conducted
workshops at universities across the country.

Beyond their impressive panorama of accomplishment in both the children's
literature and African-American children's literature fields, the Pinkneys are
a natural fit for the 2006 Festival of Faith and Writing, says Hettinga,
because of their evident and explicit faith.

"They represent perhaps the best of what festival is about," he says. "They
are people who do excellent work in their genre and are recognized for their
excellence, and there's a special quality about it. They're not doing books
that are necessarily Christian books, but they're doing good writing and good
illustrating as Christians. There's a clear positive light and a clear moral
vision in their work - along with an evident appreciation for children as image
bearers of God."

Keynote speakers for the event will be Marilynne Robinson, Salman Rushdie and
Walter Wangerin Jr. They join a long list of past notable keynoters at the
Festival, including John Updike, Maya Angelou, Chaim Potok and Joyce Carol
Oates.

For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/pinkneys.htm
Contact Donald Hettinga at 616-526-6520

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Received on Thu Apr 6 10:12:50 2006