Barbara Bottner

Barbara Bottner is an American author of over fifty books in all genres of children's literature, including YA, Middle Grade, and I Can Read. She is a screenwriter, TV writer, and writing coach. Besides, some of her award-winning picture books have been animated and staged as plays for kids.

Barbara Bottner was born in New York. She attended Boston University, École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Bottner earned her BS from the University of Wisconsin in 1965 and an MA from the University of California Santa Barbara. She also studied animation at the School of Visual Arts, NY.

Bottner began her career as an artist and actor. She said that designing off-Broadway sets in the ’60s led her to perform. As an actor in New York, she worked with Sam Shepherd in the downtown troupe, Theater Genesis, and was a member of Ellen Stewart’s ground-breaking troupe (where Hair originated) La Mama Plexus, directed by Joel Zwick (author of the romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding). The troupe toured Europe, appearing in London’s West End as well as paying in New York City and colleges around the country.

Bottner began writing for children in the 1970s when she broke her leg and considered another career.

"I decided to pursue children's book illustration. I thought, I could do original work, rather than go into advertising, or starve as an unproved painter," she says.

Bottner debuted in 1972 with the book What Would You Do with a Giant? And she has never stopped since.

Now Barbara Bottner is a New York Times best-selling author, and several of her works (e.g. Bootsie Barker Bites (1992), illustrated by Peggy Rathmann) have been animated and translated into multiple languages. Wallace’s Lists (2004), co-authored with her husband, Gerald Kruglik, staged as children’s acting in Stockholm, Sweden.

Barbara collaborated with Michael Emberley, resulting in Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't), 2010. Miss Brooks Loves Books has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and was nominated for the prestigious Bill Martin Jr. Award.

Bottner has reviewed books for children in the New York and LA Sunday Book Review. Her Short stories have been published in Cosmopolitan and Playgirl and anthologized in two collections.

Barbara Bottner is an experienced writing coach who offers her skills in script development and advice regarding the screenwriting process. Barbara provides insights, exercises, and resources to help develop original material and advance a writing career.

As a tutor, she won the Distinguished Teaching Award from the New School for Social Research, Parson School of Design, UCLA, and Miami Dade College, and lectured on children’s literature around the country.

Barbara Bottner currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband.

Photo credit: barbarabottnerbooks.com