Joanne Stanbridge was born in Kalamazoo,
Michigan
and lived in several U.S. cities before moving to Canada with her
family when she was in the fourth grade.
She says: "Three generations
of my mother's family grew up in Haliburton, Ontario, so my Canadian
roots run deep, even though my sister and brother and I were born in
the States and our dad is from England. He's an aerospace engineer, and
when I was growing up his job took us to different U.S. cities,
including Kalamazoo (twice), Atlanta, and Seattle."
In 1979, Joanne earned an
honours B.A. in English and Fine Art from the University of Guelph.
Later, she graduated with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Concordia
University, and an M.L.I.S. degree (Master of Library and Information
Studies) from McGill University.
After graduation, she became
a librarian. She was in charge of the children's department at
Westmount Public Library in Montreal for ten years. During that time,
her first two books were published.
These days, she works as a
reference librarian in Kingston, Ontario, hangs out on-line and
in-person with some amazing children's writers, and spends every free
minute writing or painting.
