Education
Arts & Culture
Nature & Environment
Pets
Travel
Health & Medicine
Food & Drink
Lifestyle
Parenting
Writer/educator Sylvia Whitman has a wide-ranging curiosity. She earned degrees from Harvard/Radcliffe College (BA, folklore and mythology); University of Texas, Austin (MA, American studies); University of Virginia (MFA, creative writing–fiction); and Georgetown University (MA, Arab studies). She currently teaches professional and creative writing as a full-time faculty member at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota and participates in a number of writing communities.
Sylvia draws on broad work experience as a lifelong freelance writer, newspaper copy editor, public relations coordinator, academic journal editor, and college instructor/administrator. She published her first magazine feature as a college student, and her articles and short stories have appeared in Ascent, The Boston Globe Magazine, Bride’s, The Florida Review, France Today, Human Rights, Journal of the West, Ladies Home Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Louisiana Life, Louisiana Literature, McCall’s, Miami Herald, RE: Arts and Letters, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, The Rotarian, Southern Magazine, Student Lawyer, Tulanian, and The Writer, among other periodicals. She has served as “The Undergraduate” columnist for Harvard Magazine, a contributing editor of The National Culinary Review, a restaurant reviewer for Orlando Magazine and citysearch.com, and the “Environmental Notebook” radio columnist on WMFE public radio in Orlando. Recognition for her work includes the Epilepsy Foundation of America’s National Journalism Award.
Sylvia also writes for children, and her publications include numerous magazine articles and more than a dozen books. Recognition for her work includes two appearances on the Banks Street College annual list of Best Children’s Books of the Year for What’s Cooking? A History of American Food (2001) and The Milk of Birds (2014). Sylvia is a 20+ year member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and the Authors Guild (AG). Among her current projects is a nonfiction roundup for children, Explorers of Land and Sea. Visit her at www.sylviawhitmanbooks.com.
Subjects
General
Specialties
Academic and personal interest in the history and culture of the United States and the Middle East and North Africa
Skills
- Advertorials
- Blog posts
- Books
- Brochures
- Case studies
- Curriculum
- E-books
- Editing
- Essays
- Feature writing
- Conference coverage
- Awards submissions
- Communications strategy
- News
- News releases
- Op-Ed
- Photography
- Profiles
- Ideation
- Publicity
- Publication management
- Speechwriting
- Web copy
- White papers
- Conference/meeting coverage
- Articles
- Donor communications
- Media relations
- Project management
- Radio (writing)
Writing Credits
ARTICLES and STORIES in
in Today, Harvard Magazine, Horn Book, Hudson Valley, Human Rights, The Humanist, Inside, Jack and Jill, Japanophile, Journal of the West, Ladies Home Journal, Law and Order, Los Angeles Times, Louisiana Life, Louisiana Literature, McCall’s, Miami Herald, The National Culinary Review, RE: Arts and Letters, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, The Rotarian, Sarasota Magazine, Scene, Seventeen, Sky, Southern Magazine, Spider, Stanford Achievement Test 9, Student Lawyer, The Sun, Tulanian, Venice Magazine, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, and more
Book Credits
Decide & Survive: The Destruction of Pompeii (Bushel & Peck Books, forthcoming 2024)—middle grade choose-your-own-adventure novel, 128pp.
If You Meet the Devil, Don’t Shake Hands (Regal House Publishing/Fitzroy Books, 2023)—middle grade novel, 177 pp.
The Milk of Birds (Atheneum, 2013)—young adult, ~340 pp.
- Amelia Bloomer List 2014, ALA, for books with significant feminist content
- Notable Books for a Global Society 2014, IRA
- Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2014
- Finalist, Amelia Walden award for YA fiction, 2014, NCTE
Under the Ramadan Moon (Albert Whitman, 2008)—picture book, ~32 pp.
Global Issues: World Poverty (Facts On File, 2008)—research companion for high school/junior college, ~400pp.
What’s Cooking? The History of American Food (Lerner Publications, 2001)—middle-grade nonfiction, 88pp.
- Bank Street College, Best Children’s Books of the Year 2001, Bank Street College
Children of the World War II Home Front (Carolrhoda Books, 2001), elementary-grade nonfiction, 48pp.
Immigrant Children (Carolrhoda, 2000)—elementary-grade nonfiction, 48pp.
Frontier Children (Carolrhoda Books, 1998)—elementary-grade nonfiction, 48pp.
Get Up and Go: The History of American Road Travel (Lerner Publications, 1996)—middle-grade nonfiction, 88pp.
This Land Is Your Land: The American Conservation Movement (Lerner Publications, 1994)—middle-grade nonfiction, 88pp.
Uncle Sam Wants You: Military Men and Women of World War II (Lerner Publications, 1993)—middle-grade nonfiction, 88pp.
“V” Is for Victory: The American Home Front during World War II (Lerner Publications, 1993)
Hernando de Soto and the Explorers of the American South (Chelsea House, 1991)
BOOK CHAPTERS
“How Would a Restaurant Reviewer Critique a Piece of Writing?” and “A Basketball Coach’s Guide to Conversation Practice,” in Language Teaching: Insights from Other Fields: Sports, Arts, Design, and More, Chris Stillwell, editor, Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL Press, 2013.
“Closing the Nursery Door,” in Like a Second Mother: Nannies and Housekeepers in the Lives of Wealthy Children, Barbara Blouin, editor, Canada: The Inheritance Project, Trio Press, 1999, pp. 201-205.
“Forget the Alamo,” in The Writer’s Handbook, Sylvia K. Burack, editor, Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1998, pp. 442-446.
“Ruth Cross” in Texas Women Writers: A Tradition of Their Own, Sylvia Ann Grider and Lou Halsell Rodenberger, editors, College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1997, pp. 94-99.
“Seven Sisters, TX,” “Mattie Ruth Cross,” and “Texas Prison Rodeo,” in The New Handbook of Texas, Ron Tyler, Douglas E. Barnett, and Roy R. Barkley, editors, Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 1996.
“Oil Spills: How Great the Tanker Hazard,” in Guide to Florida Environmental Issues and Information, Linda A. Lord, editor, Winter Park, FL: Florida Conservation Foundation, 1993.
Awards, Honors, Appointments
Epilepsy Foundation of America’s National Journalism Award
The Milk of Birds (Atheneum, 2013)—young adult novel
Selected Work
As author, unless indicated otherwise.
