Leslie Bulion
http://www.lesliebulion.comB. 1958
Young adult novelist and poet Leslie Bulion earned a BA at Cornell University, an MS at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, and an MSW at Southern Connecticut State University.
Bulion’s eclectic studies—including work in oceanography and entomology—enrich her poems and novels in myriad ways. Originally a social worker, she began writing for children after a family trip to East Africa in 1998. The experience inspired her to write the picture book Fatuma’s New Cloth (2002), winner of the Children’s Africana Book Award.
A review of Hey There, Stink Bug! in Booklist describes Bulion’s multilayered approach: she uses both “sophisticated allusions and wordplay” and “the words’ frank, gross-out drama.” In interviews Bulion has discussed her writing process, noting that she composes her poems as parts of “collections with a central theme, so it all feels connected into a longer work. I research each poem as I go, so each day brings a different kind of work and new ideas to explore.”
Bulion’s collections of poems for children include Hey There, Stink Bug! (2006), which was selected as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the Association of Booksellers for Children, and At the Sea Floor Café: Odd Ocean Critter Poems (2011). She has also published several young adult novels, including Missing Pieces (2002), Bank Street Best Book Uncharted Waters (2006), and The Trouble with Rules (2008).
She lives in Durham, Connecticut.
Bulion’s eclectic studies—including work in oceanography and entomology—enrich her poems and novels in myriad ways. Originally a social worker, she began writing for children after a family trip to East Africa in 1998. The experience inspired her to write the picture book Fatuma’s New Cloth (2002), winner of the Children’s Africana Book Award.
A review of Hey There, Stink Bug! in Booklist describes Bulion’s multilayered approach: she uses both “sophisticated allusions and wordplay” and “the words’ frank, gross-out drama.” In interviews Bulion has discussed her writing process, noting that she composes her poems as parts of “collections with a central theme, so it all feels connected into a longer work. I research each poem as I go, so each day brings a different kind of work and new ideas to explore.”
Bulion’s collections of poems for children include Hey There, Stink Bug! (2006), which was selected as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the Association of Booksellers for Children, and At the Sea Floor Café: Odd Ocean Critter Poems (2011). She has also published several young adult novels, including Missing Pieces (2002), Bank Street Best Book Uncharted Waters (2006), and The Trouble with Rules (2008).
She lives in Durham, Connecticut.