Arlene Mark
Arlene Mark grew up in western Pa. steel country before making her way to NYC to begin her career. After working in fashion, marrying, and committing to her family, she lived in London, Caracas, and Toronto with husband and three children before settling in CT. She has an MA in special education, a certification in school psychology and interned at NY State Psychiatric Institute. Her work has appeared in Highlights for Children, Spider, Skipping Stones, Adolescence, Their World, and Greenwich Magazine. She is the author of To the Tower, A Greenwich Adventure, coauthor of Paraverbal Communication with Children: Not Through Words Alone and has served as a Greenwich Time contributing editor writing articles about children’s emotional lives. Her eight grandchildren are enthusiastic fans. When not writing, Arlene can be found lobstering with her husband, Reuben, visiting schools in Asia and Latin America, reading (mostly books for kids), and screening new films.
What’s your favorite comic strip or graphic novel?
I love Peanuts for its simplicity. The child characters always make me laugh and think, “why didn’t I think of that?” as a scene for a book. Fresh lines are filled with logical wisdom that I believe comes naturally to children. Also, I read Calvin & Hobbes for the characters’ friendship and individual ways Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes (but real tiger in Calvin’s story telling) solve problems .That’s what picture books and middle grade stories are, making readers laugh, finding friends, and figuring things out.
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
Of course. Everything I write, I write because I imagine characters with something they want. I write the story for myself and my reader audience to see how the story comes out. I don’t know this when I begin to write. When a piece is accepted for publication, mostly in children’s magazines, I think, “is it good enough? Did I spend enough time on it? Maybe someone else could have written this story better? Those are the thoughts that make me think I’m an imposter and maybe not really a writer. Even though, when I begin to write, I feel confident that I have something to say. After a while, I settle down, look at the stories I’ve published and get over that Imposter Syndrome eventually. It may pop up again.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
Rural – definitely. But first I have to say I love New York City for all the diversity, best theatre, museums with every kind of art I might want to see, people and sights on the street, so much. When I’ve been in developing lands such as Myanmar, Borneo, South Africa, Tibet, Nepal, India, I spend a short time in the cities, but in rural areas, I’ve been able to see women walking for their water with jugs on their heads, children walking to school, often barefooted, but shouldering backpacks, young boys becoming novices and going into monasteries for initiation, water buffalo led by owners to their work for the day and other daily rural activities. (Women washing clothes in rivers or breaking up stones for building or walking with goats or cattle to grazing places). The mystery even though routine nature of it all makes my heart beats go faster. I want to know the stories the people could tell. All I can do is observe respectfully and create stories that might let readers feel something about those experiences.
Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?
Shawls. Oh, yes. Shawls from countries I’ve visited. Shawls seem to be women’s leveling fashion. Women in rural India wear shawls, wrapped tightly but breezily and elegantly. Women in so many poor countries wear shawls as they work in the fields, wrap their babies in part of their shawls, carry food home in sections of their shawls, wrap them as skirts, and are creative in so many ways with their shawls. Fashionable women in Paris, New York, Rome, everywhere wear shawls with their black dresses and high heels. Shawls are covers for women all around the world and uncover so much about their cultures. Yes. Shawls.
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
I speak Spanish adequately and love the language, Latin countries, and their cultures. I have been influenced by stories of families experiencing hardship in their countries and coming to America, not speaking English and children having to navigate school. Speaking Spanish has empowered me to work with Spanish-speaking children and their families in programs and organizations and that has brought me even closer to various Latin cultures. I have written a novel, yet unpublished, about a class of Special Education children, mostly of Latin origin, who are on a challenging journey to graduate from high school.
