A bi-weekly feature profiling the talented authors and illustrators who bring children’s books to life.

Lisa Rojany Buccieri (pronounced Row-zha-nee Boo-chee-eh-ree) wrote her first book at the age of three by dictating it to her mother. Reading was (and still is) an integral part of her imagination and defined her childhood. “I used to create forts in my closet with blankets, a flashlight, my favorite snacks and stacks of books, and read and read and read,” she says. When she applied to college she remembers thinking she wanted to spend the rest of her life reading and writing. Her dream took a dramatic turn while studying for her Ph.D. at Brown University with the ultimate goal of becoming a college professor. “The myopia and politics of academia was not something I was interested in spending my life doing,” Buccieri says. More…