Bookworm Literary Festival: Lise Bidstrup
Usually, in the children's programs at the Bookworm Literary Festival, we see authors and illustrators whose work is available in English. Even the Chinese writers and artists we have seen have something in English translation.
This year, though, there was one author whose work has never been released into any Anglophone market. Lise Bidstrup presented in English and gave a great talk, though her books are only in her native Danish. The downside, then, was that there were no books to be had afterwards.
More after the jump
Like I said in previous posts, one of the fascinating parts of all these Literary Festival events for children is learning about the different paths people take on their way to becoming published authors. Lise Bidstrup's biggest dream as a child was to play for the Danish national football team.
Later, she set her sights on studying anthropology at university. However, in Denmark admission to that program was rather competitive, so to boost her chances she began traveling the world with humanitarian missions. She taught English in Costa Rica, built latrines in Nepal, planted trees in India, and worked with street children in the Philippines. She eventually made her way back to Denmark, to university.
After a few years, she began writing her first novel. Titled Den Grønne Krystal, it was rejected twelve times before publication. She then commenced on her writing career, using her travels as inspiration for her stories. For instance, in one story she used a legendary monster she heard about in Costa Rica.
Of her books she discussed, two series interested Myles the most. One was the Shinobi series, books that Bidstrup wrote for her own sons who were reluctant readers. Myles saw the cover of one of them ("Mom, look! Ninjas in Tuxedos!") and was intrigued.
The other series Myles wishes were in English were the Magiens Stjerne books. In this pentalogy, the main characters are forced to live like Romani in five different European cities that form a star on the map in order to break some sort of curse. Part of Bidstrup's inspiration was her own family background as her mother is of Italian Romani descent.
At the end we could only thank Bidstrup for her talk and tell her how much we would like to see her books in English. There are not plans for that, unfortunately, but possibly in Chinese sometime.
This year, though, there was one author whose work has never been released into any Anglophone market. Lise Bidstrup presented in English and gave a great talk, though her books are only in her native Danish. The downside, then, was that there were no books to be had afterwards.
More after the jump
Like I said in previous posts, one of the fascinating parts of all these Literary Festival events for children is learning about the different paths people take on their way to becoming published authors. Lise Bidstrup's biggest dream as a child was to play for the Danish national football team.
Later, she set her sights on studying anthropology at university. However, in Denmark admission to that program was rather competitive, so to boost her chances she began traveling the world with humanitarian missions. She taught English in Costa Rica, built latrines in Nepal, planted trees in India, and worked with street children in the Philippines. She eventually made her way back to Denmark, to university.
After a few years, she began writing her first novel. Titled Den Grønne Krystal, it was rejected twelve times before publication. She then commenced on her writing career, using her travels as inspiration for her stories. For instance, in one story she used a legendary monster she heard about in Costa Rica.
Of her books she discussed, two series interested Myles the most. One was the Shinobi series, books that Bidstrup wrote for her own sons who were reluctant readers. Myles saw the cover of one of them ("Mom, look! Ninjas in Tuxedos!") and was intrigued.
The other series Myles wishes were in English were the Magiens Stjerne books. In this pentalogy, the main characters are forced to live like Romani in five different European cities that form a star on the map in order to break some sort of curse. Part of Bidstrup's inspiration was her own family background as her mother is of Italian Romani descent.
At the end we could only thank Bidstrup for her talk and tell her how much we would like to see her books in English. There are not plans for that, unfortunately, but possibly in Chinese sometime.
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