Children's Author-Illustrator: MONICA WELLINGTON

Monica Wellington has been writing and illustrating children's book for over 20 years. Her first book, Who Is Tapping at My Window? was published in 1988, and she has since published about 35 books here and abroad. From Crepes By Suzette to Apple Farmer Annie and Mr. Cookiebaker, Monica’s books are filled with brightly colored illustrations and fun, relatable characters for young audiences. Monica has been teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York City for over 10 years, and classes she took there in 1986-7 helped launch her illustration career. As a child, Monica’s family lived in Europe before settling in the United States, and after studying pottery, painting and printmaking at the University of Michigan School of Art, Monica traveled widely and has now lived in NYC for about 30 years.

Monica’s diverse life experiences have inspired an array of characters and subjects for her books. She passes on insight and skills to her students at SVA and she continues to develop her creativity as she works on each new book.

Money Makers: DAVID SNIDER

David Snider, 25, has successfully co-authored the book he wished was written when he was entering the workforce after graduating from Duke University in 2007: a guide to the most selective fields in business and finance from the experience of seasoned industry leaders themselves. David started his career after college in management consulting at Bain & Company, and is now working at Bain Capital, one of the largest private equity and alternative asset managers in the world. Money Makers has been enormously successful since its release this year, so much so that it was sold out of Barnes & Nobles in the entire Manhattan area when we first went to purchase it in the fall (the Columbia book store clerk even asked us if it was on some reading list because it was “flying off the shelves!”). Robert McDonald, the CEO of Procter & Gamble, agrees: "Money Makers does a super job of explaining how the elements of finance integrate to fuel our economy," especially given the altered economic landscape following the global financial crisis.  David and co-author, Dr. Chris Howard, have succinctly laid out the differences in career paths, lifestyles, and work environments of jobs in an investment bank, venture capital and entrepreneurship, private equity,  hedge funds, management consulting, and in Fortune 500 companies through interviews with success stories like Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group, and Shona Brown, Vice President of Business Operations at Google.

David exemplifies many of the qualities which he himself has identified in business legends, so will we not be surprised if he ends up on the other side of a similar project in years to come.

Big Girls Small Kitchen: PHOEBE LAPINE & CARA EISENPRESS

Phoebe Lapine and Cara Eisenpress are not intimidated by the age-old warning that “too many cooks spoil the soup.” The childhood friends have joined forces to conquer the kitchen in their blog Big Girls Small Kitchen: A Guide to Quarter Life Cooks. With a book on the way, they command a loyal following of readers, speaking to the experience of foodies in the college and early post-grad demographic who persevere in the kitchen, despite constraints of budget, space, and time. Yet these girls have a much wider audience hooked as they experiment with anything from “pork butt” to pumpkin chilli. A Sex and the City idea with a more wholesome twist, we love BGSK because it is about building a repertoire of cooking experience among close friends.

Phoebe and Cara have gotten the recipe right: a little fun, some fearless cooking, and sharing it all with an appreciative audience—it comes out well every time.

 

Google Expert: EVAN BAILYN

We all take for granted the effortlessness of Google: type in a search term, and voila! Results. While this functional understanding serves most of us just fine, Evan Bailyn set out to uncover the way we receive these results and, more specifically, how the results are organized. After graduating Columbia University in 2003, Evan spent 16 months questioning, investigating, and ultimately cracking the Google algorithm. In other words, he figured out how to claim the top search return of the world’s largest search engine, based on any term. His career has soared ever since. The self-proclaimed “Google expert” capitalized on his discovery by founding First Page Sage, a search engine optimization and social media company that achieves a near-perfect record of getting the websites of Evan’s clients (celebrities and Fortune 500 clients alike) to appear at the top of a Google search. Evan then went on to apply his knowledge to founding the Cartoon Doll Emporium, now one of the largest children’s websites in the world, reaching over 70 million kids and parents. Evan’s commitment to child advocacy was born out of this project, and he has since utilized Facebook to provide inspirational messages about self-psychology and childhood, attracting over 50,000 fans in 5 months, making his page the second most popular non-celebrity fan page. In 2010, Evan established The Evan Bailyn Foundation, which awards grants to groups that promote emotional awareness in children. And if that’s not enough, his first book, Outsmarting Google, will debut in bookstores in early 2011.

The internet entrepreneur, author, and child advocate, has it all: self-made success, serious levels of publicity (ABC, Fox News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, International Business Times, Crain's, and will be featured on an upcoming segment of Joan Rivers' reality show "How'd You Get So Rich?"), a girlfriend, great brother, and sense of humor and compassion that never fails.

Author: STACY KRAMER

Comic writer Stacy Kramer plays many roles in the world of entertainment. Having spent time at major film studios Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Twentieth Century Fox, Stacy broke into the industry as a story editor and worked her way to the top of the chain as a producer, creating classic indie hits The Last Seduction, Jawbreaker, and Igby Goes Down. After years in production and the births of her three children, Stacy decided to retire her producer’s hat and challenge herself to begin writing. From magazines to books to television, Stacy flourished and her career took off: a humor column for the Village Voice, comic pieces for Elle and Marie Claire, episodes for TV show Lizzie McGuire, and the Warner Brother’s TV-movie starring Lindsay Lohan, Labor Pains. And Stacy's latest focus? Writing to entertain the complicated and sassy "tween" demographic. Together with long-time friend and coworker, Valerie Thomas, they wrote and released the hit pre-teen novel, Karma Bites this Fall 2010. Stacy confesses there aren’t any vampires in the novel, but she and Val have been bitten by the charms of the young adult market, where the book has received sparkling reviews.

We know Stacy has the formula right when her humorous, smart, and often sarcastic writing makes both tweens and adults laugh in unison. 

New York's Financial Planner: RUSSELL BAILYN

Russell Bailyn spends his days as a Wealth Manager at Premier Financial Advisors, giving strategic advice to clients about how to maintain and build their wealth. Yet Russell isn’t just an ordinary financial planner, he is the sage behind popular blog "New York's Financial Planner" through which he showcases his expertise by giving advice to a much wider audience. Russel’s blog was so well received, in fact, that he was approached to turn it into a published book, Navigating the Financial Blogosphere, which explains IRAs, 401(k)s, picking stocks and bonds, among other more complex topics.

Russel bases his life around his knack for planning, yet has found himself in places of unexpected success because of his passion for his career.

Author: ANISHA LAKHANI

Author, teacher, screenwriter, blogger, and it-girl Anisha Lakhani (Columbia College and Teachers College graduate) gained national recognition for Schooled, her debut novel inspired by her own experiences as an English teacher turned private tutor at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side. After spending nearly a decade in academia (she rose to be chair of the Middle School English department), Anisha left Dalton in 2006 to further pursue her greatest passion, writing. She was approached by online fashion magazine Pink Memo editor Katrina Szish, who "knew Anisha liked to write" and offered her the position of New York Scene Editor, where she fittingly covers some of NYC's most fabulous events. Anisha has also contributed to Vogue India and The New York Post, as well as Q and Quest magazines.  More recently, she started her own blog, Back to A, on which she realizes her new-found love for home-decorating by documenting her journey to redesign her Upper East Side one-bedroom apartment. It's an unusual decor blog, and we can't help but wonder if Anisha is using it as inspiration for her next book?

Anisha's charm, passion, and exuberance ensures she'll live a fun and successful life enjoying what she does best: write. And keep your eyes peeled for Schooled the movie--we hear the rights were optioned by actress Lorraine Bracco and Anisha wrote the adaptation herself.

Author: AMITAV GHOSH

Our very own Hilary will be studying abroad in India next semester, and in anticipation of her travels, she has focused her leisurely reading on one of India's most famous and award-winning authors, Amitav Ghosh. Born and raised in India, Amitav offers an authentic, culturally descriptive homage to his country in his writing.  He has a distinguished portfolio of written work, including his novels (In An Antique Land, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances, The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies, among others) and his essays (published in The Hindu, The New Yorker, Granta, and The New York Times Editorial Section). He has also influenced many young writers while teaching at Delhi University in India and Harvard and Columbia Universities in the United States.

And so, we give you: a short but sweet peek into the mind of Amitav Ghosh.