What are authors and illustrators saying about Mike's work?
"This story has many opportunities for visual magic. As an illustrator, I would relish making/creating images for a story with these characters and this environment."
~ Award-winning illustrator of more than 30 children's books
"This one brought tears to my eyes! Beautiful!!"
~ Published children's book author
"Hilarious. I can't wait to see this on the shelves - it will be a bestseller!"
~ Published children's book author
Mike English
A trembling 2nd-grader reads to the class as beads of sweat from his forehead, each following its own unique, circuitous route, ultimately find an abrupt, absorptive end in his socks. The paper rustles in his shaky hands like a whirl of crisp fallen leaves caught up in a pirouette that skips on each revolution and begins anew like an old, scratched music album. One more sentence, he says to himself, I can do it.
As I watched my fellow 2nd-grader melt before my eyes on that day, I came upon my most ambitious aspiration: to one day become only as shy as he was.
Until that day would come, I started writing to express what I was not able to with spoken words. In college I became interested in the works of many French authors, which led me to pursue degrees in French Studies, as I wanted to read those authors' books in the language they were written in and learn more about the authors' cultures.
I lived in France for a year (thanks to a graduate research fellowship that paid the bills - merci beaucoup) and hopped as many trains as my meager budget allowed.
Today, I teach English to speakers of other languages (ESL) and work as a college librarian (read my take on one of the unexpected consequences of becoming a librarian). My wife and I have two amazing daughters, and it is such a gift to be able to raise them in a multicultural (Bolivian and Irish-American, with dual Irish citizenship) and multilingual (Spanish and English, with some Quechua and French strategically, or randomly, peppered in) home.
Along the way, I have worked as a whitewater rafting guide (ask me about the Mother's Day trip someday, after which the designation of "guide" came into question), completed a half-Ironman, a 100-mile bicycle ride, and an ultra marathon (some of my musings in Ultrarunning magazine), and dream of one day having the kind of coordination required to make it around an ice-skating rink without falling down.
Through it all, my greatest passion has been writing.
That passion—for crafting the words, connecting the moments, solving the creative problems, and ultimately discovering the story along the way—burns more brightly every day, and I am passionate about bringing stories to life.
Mike English is a proud member of the following organizations:
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