Frank Asch,Born:

August 6, 1946

Somerville, New Jersey,

Current Home:

Middletown Springs, Vermont,

Biography

For over 30 years, Frank Asch has been writing and illustrating children's books, poetry, concept books, juvenile nonfiction, and children's novels. “People always ask me, how do you get ideas?” Asch says. “I keep giving them different answers because the true answer is, I don't know, which is another way of saying 'ideas come from the unconscious.' But there are two main ways that I, personally, have of tapping into the part of my unconscious that supplies me with kid book ideas:

Number 1: My inner child (the kid that I was that I still am), and

Number 2: Playing with kids.”

Frank Asch was born on August 6, 1946, in Somerville, NJ. He has an older brother and sister. In 1969 he graduated from Cooper Union in New York City with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts. Since then he has taught in both the United States and abroad. He has also organized art, writing, puppetry, and creative dramatics workshops for children all over the country.

In l989, Frank Asch and Vladimir Vagin (a Russian artist) published Here Comes the Cat! This was the first Russian/American collaboration on a children's book, and has since received the Russian National Book Award. Mr. Asch also joined forces with naturalist and photographer Ted Levin for a series of poetry books for children. In 1996, their first book, Sawgrass Poems, was named to the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers. Like a Windy Day was released in fall 2002. It is the fourth (and last) book in the “element” book series that already includes The Earth and I, Water, and The Sun Is My Favorite Star.

Asch lives in Middletown Springs, Vermont, with his wife, Jan, and their faithful dog, Robi. They have one son, Devin, who was born in 1979. Devin made his picture-book debut with the father/son collaboration, Baby Duck's New Friend.