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Zaro Weil was born in the United States. She founded a successful and ongoing theatre-dance company for children in St Louis, Mo and was writer and director as well as performer with Metro Theatre Company for over ten years. She was also adjunct professor at Webster University teaching drama, dance and writing in the Master-of-Arts program.
After moving to London she worked in theatre and dance as well as writing for both adults and children. Her first poetry collection for kids, Mud, Moon and Me, was published in 1988 by Orchard Books in the UK.
She founded a successful book publishing company in the UK, MQ Publications, where she was CEO and Publisher for over sixteen years.
After moving to France, Zaro continued writing for children full time. In addition to her poems appearing in many anthologies and magazines, she has had several poetry collections published since 2018 and one chapter book: Firecrackers, Spot Guevara Hero Dog, Cherry Moon (CLiPPA winner 2020), Polka Dot Poems, and When Poems Fall from the Sky(Double nominated writing and art for the Yoto Carnegie Medals 2023 and translated into both French and Mandarin). Junli Song grew up in Chicago, but lived abroad from 2012-2018 in South Korea, England, Italy, and South Africa. Her studies are similarly widespread: she originally majored in economics and international development at the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford, respectively, before returning to the creative path. She completed her MFA at the University of Arkansas with a concentration in printmaking, and recently completed the Grant Wood fellowship in printmaking at the University of Iowa. She is currently the 2024-2026 Gaius Charles Bolin fellow in the studio art department at Williams College. Song has been selected for artist residencies including the Vermont Studio Center and the Women's Studio Workshop (upcoming in 2025). As an artist and storyteller, she works across a range of media including printmaking and installation to explore imagined worlds and personal mythologies. |
