Jane Yolen: A Remembrance
Photo of Group:
Standing left to right: Holly Thompson, Corinne Demas, Barbara Diamond Goldin, Ruth Sanderson, Jeannine Atkins. Seated: Jane Yolen
Author’s Note: Jane Yolen, who died June 11, 2026, was a transformative figure in the world of children’s literature, but her more than 450 published books spanned an extraordinary breadth of creativity, from her picture book classic Owl Moon to her moving adult poetry collection The Radiation Sonnets. She was instrumental in making Western Massachusetts a haven for writers and a mecca for children’s book authors and illustrators.
This piece is based on the remembrance I read at the celebration of Jane’s life at the Eric Carle Museum August 2nd which drew two hundred friends and fans in person and thousands on-line.
Jane and I became friends forty-eight years ago when I moved to the Valley to start teaching at Mount Holyoke College. I didn’t know many people in the area, but Jane immediately drew me into her vast constellation of friends. Jane was a genius at creating community. Along with Alexander Eliot and Zane and Norman Kotker she started a Thursday afternoon writers’ group. We met in the back of the bar at Northampton’s seedy Bay State Hotel. The Bay State Writers, as we called ourselves, included, among others, Patty MacLaughlin, Tracy Kidder, Rich Michelson, William O’Rourke, John Bowman, Lisa Ekus, Jay Neugeboren, and Bob Abel, with Jane the magnetic center. It was a place to discuss our editors and agents, and tell bad jokes. I was primarily publishing fiction for adults then, but I’d had done a picture book, and Jane, who was an editor with her own imprint at Harcourt at the time, persuaded me to show her Matthew’s Meadow, a story I’d written just for my son. Jane snapped it up with the same certainty she demonstrated at a party when she met the man I was dating, pointed at him and said “yes!” She smiled at our wedding three years later as if she’d had orchestrated the whole thing.
Jane recruited me for her children’s writing group (called, simply, “Group”) when I had a sabbatical from Mount Holyoke. Members came and left Group over time. I joined for that year, but ended up staying forever. The other members in Jane’s final year of Group were Barbara Diamond Goldin, Ruth Sanderson, Jeannine Atkins, and Holly Thompson.
Photo of Bay State Writers:
Rear row left to right: Alexander Elior, John Bowman, Rich Michelson. Middle row: Jay Neugeborne, Jane Yolen, Zane Kotker.
Front row: Corinne Demas, Bob Abel.
Being part of Jane’s Group was a continuing exercise in humility. Every meeting we shared news—our new publications, acceptances, reviews, and books in progress. The volume of Jane’s output as well as the variety—including rhyming board books, early readers, fantasy novels, adult poetry—was so extraordinary, I had to wonder if it was really the work of only one person. She’d pass around a stack of books that had just been published, translations in a myriad of languages, paperbacks, F&Gs of books on their way, glowing reviews, and reports of new sales. The shape of a thirty-two page picture book was part of her DNA. She dazzled us all with not only her prodigious productivity, but with the lightening speed of her writing and revisions, Jane welcomed and made immediate use of our critical feedback. She’d bring a manuscript draft to Group and have it sold the next day. Jane delighted in her successes, but she never bragged, she was just as excited by someone else’s good news, and did, what she called her “happy dance.”
Group was about more than our writing, it was also about our personal lives. We were like a close-knit band of sisters. We shared news about family—our children and grandchildren, our love lives, our sorrows, our worries, and our hopes. Jane often reminded us about the “cone of silence”—what was said in Group, stayed in Group. We celebrated our birthdays and together we grieved the death of three members: Anna Kirwan, Patty MacLachlan, and Ellen Wittlinger.
This is what it was like to be in Jane’s writing group:
At a meeting you’d mention something that had happened, and Jane would say, “You have a book there!” And when you demurred, Jane would look at you, and say, “write it.”
When you’d bring the manuscript in the next week, Jane would be pleased, and make a few suggestions that thrust the book into an entirely new place, changing the point of view, the setting, turning the adult character into a child, the hamster into a capybara, “The story starts here!” She’d say. And point to page three of your manuscript. “And this is your ending,” and she’d underscore a line miles before your original ending.
So you’d rewrite the manuscript and bring it in again and Jane would scribble line edits and word substitutions. She’d look over your list of possible titles, and come up with a terrific one. Then Jane would think of the ideal editor and publisher to try. “Send it with a note saying I suggested it,” she’d say. A week later Jane would ask if you’d heard from the editor, and if you said “not yet” she’d say “I’ll give her a nudge.” And she did.
When the book actually sold, Jane would know the perfect illustrator for you to suggest to your editor, and behind the scenes she’d tell the illustrator about your book and persuade them to squeeze it into their busy schedule.
When the book was ready for publication, Jane would write a blurb so generous and brilliant it took your breath away. And when the book came out she’d be there at the first book event, sharing in your joy.
What I experienced with Jane in Group was similar, I saw, to the role she played in the world of writers. I believe her most important contribution was the tone that she set for the profession. Jane felt there was always room for more new books and more new writers. In a world that’s otherwise highly competitive and sometimes unkind, Jane, in contrast, promoted the making of books as a joyful, communal enterprise. She worked her magic. She made us what we are: a community of writers and illustrators who love what we do and who support each other’s efforts. It’s her gift to us and her legacy.
CORINNE DEMAS is the author of 39 books including two collections of short stories, seven novels, a memoir, a collection of poetry, two plays, and numerous books for children. She is a professor emeritus of English at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor of the Massachusetts Review. Find out more at her website.
