About Us | Children's Literature Program

As one of the first universities in the country to embrace children’s literature as a serious subject of study and teaching, the University of Minnesota has a rich and fascinating history. To learn more about how the program has evolved and about all the exceptional contributions to the field of children’s literature, please explore our timeline or watch the video below.

The Children’s Literature at UMN site is maintained by Dr. Marek Oziewicz and his graduate students. Additional contributions are made by students in the children’s literature courses.

Marek Oziewicz is the Marguerite Henry Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Oziewicz studies the power of stories to nurture empathy and understanding across cultures. His research is focused on speculative fiction and literature-based cognitive modeling for moral education, global citizenship, environmental awareness, and justice literacy. He is the author of One Earth, One People(McFarland 2008)—the winner of the 2010 Mythopoeic Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies—and of Justice in Young Adult Speculative Fiction (Routledge 2015). Learn more.

Current Children’s Literature @ UMN Writers and Editors:

Sara Sterner

Laura Lemanski

Nicholas Kleese

Our Recent Graduates:

Emily Midkiff

Megan VanDeventer