Laurie Wallmark
Award-winning author Laurie Wallmark has written picture book biographies of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in fields ranging from computer science to mathematics to astronomy. Her books have earned multiple starred trade reviews, been chosen as Junior Library Guild Selections, and received awards such as Outstanding Science Trade Book, Cook Prize Honor, AAAS/Subaru Prize Longlist, and Parents’ Choice Gold Medal. Laurie has an MFA in Writing from VCFA. She is a former software engineer and computer science professor.
Twitter: @lauriewallmark
Facebook: @lauriewallmarkauthor
What’s the oddest thing a reader has ever asked you?
I don’t know that you’d call this the oddest, but rather it’s the one that totally took me by surprise. In my book, Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, I show Ada trying to build a flying machine. A third grader asked me if I thought Ada did this so she could visit the father (Lord Byron) she never knew. It took me a moment to answer, because I couldn’t believe a child so young could have such insight. By the way, my answer was, “yes.”
What’s your favorite comic strip or graphic novel?
My favorite comic is XKCD. How could you not love a webcomic that bills itself as being about “romance, sarcasm, math, and language?” Most of the jokes are science-y, then they add a pop-up with an extra layer of sarcasm.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
Sometimes I know in just a few pages that a book isn’t for me. Unfortunately, sometimes I get most of the way through a book before figuring that out. I recently gave up halfway through a book that I was truly enjoying, but the writing was so bloated I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Is there another profession you would like to try?
If my university had offered a neuroscience major, I would have definitely chosen that over biochemistry. I’m fascinated about how the brain and would love to understand more. The other possibility would be to go back to my childhood love of math. Unfortunately to practice in either of these fields would take years of study to bring me up to speed.
If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?
This one’s a no-brainer – Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). To date, all of my picture book biographies have been about unsung women in these fields. A museum exhibition could show people how important women are in STEM.
