Page 24 - WCM 2023 Winter Flip

Rowland Creitz, at critical junctures in his literary work, grabs time to reinvigorate in the great outdoors.
“The best thing that ever happened to me as a writer was hearing Dr. Don Graves speak about how children should learn to write, which is all about following the process – the steps – and I do, every day.” Creitz describes his favorite part of writing as the reaction of the reader, in that sparking a dialogue is more important to him than accolades.
Stoneham’s Mary Atkinson
Atkinson was the youngest of five children, born and raised in the Boston area. Since the early 90s, she’s called Horseshoe Pond in Stoneham her home. Her mother was a Mainer, and Atkinson summered in Surry. Her father was a Harvard man, and her three brothers followed his lead, while her older sister headed off to nursing school.
“I was the renegade,” Atkinson says. “I wasn’t Ivy League material, nor was I interested in what was expected. A Spanish teacher in high school – she
saw that I was lost – suggested I move to Spain for a couple of years after graduation in ‘69, and so I stayed with my teacher’s friend. I had a wonderful new Spanish family. They healed me from difficult times of my youth. I enrolled in the University of Madrid
and became fluent in Spanish – then I was ready for a new adventure. I returned to Boston, and my mother wanted me to apply to Yale. I had a couple of beers before my interview, and didn’t get in. I did get into Antioch though, and loved it. They had a cooperative education program where I could combine work study and academics. I majored in Education and Spanish. I met my husband Steve there, and we moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He got an engineering job and started a radio station where I ran a bi-lingual show for our Hispanic population.”
Atkinson gave birth to her daughter, and the family moved to Massachusetts for work, and to be closer to Atkinson’s family. She taught school in Andover and Reading, and then returned to college for a Masters in Educational Administration
from Lesley University in Cambridge. In the
early 80s, Atkinson found herself busy teaching and engaging in community projects, along with
a growing family after her son was born. But she couldn’t stop thinking about a children’s literature class she’d taken with Lucille Clifton, an African- American children’s poet who’d impressed her with the statement that every child needed to be
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Arts, Entertainment, Adventure and More in Western Maine
Susan Quinn