Shutta crum biography

Hi!
I'm a children's author and a poet.
Shutta was born in Paintsville, Kentucky, and lives with her husband in Michigan.

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Crum, Shutta 1951-

Personal

Born 1951; married. Education:University of Michigan, B.A. (library science), M.A. (library science). Hobbies and other interests: Quilting, mosaics.

Addresses

Home and office—P.O. Box 7444, Ann Arbor, MI 48107. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer. South Lyon District Library, South Lyon, MI, former library director; Ann Arbor District Library, Ann Arbor, MI, former children's librarian and storyteller, and manager of Northeast Branch Library. Teacher in Holly, MI, public high school; Washtenaw Community College, MI, former instructor.

Awards, Honors

Children's Services Award of Merit, Michigan Library Association, 2002; One Hundred Books for Reading and Sharing designation, New York Public Library, 2003, and shortlisted for Kentucky Bluegrass Award, 2005, and South Carolina Junior Book Reward, 2006, both for Spitting Image; Best Children's Books of the

Year designation, Bank Street College, 2002, and Black-eyed Susan Award shortlist, both 2003, for Who Took My Hairy Toe?; Canada Our Choice designation, 2002, for All on a

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An Interview with Shutta Crum
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Born in Paintsville, Kentucky, Shutta Crum is an award-winning author of three novels and thirteen picture books for younger readers and two chapbooks of poetry for adults: When You Get Here (Kelsay Books, 2020) and The Way to the River (Kelsay Books 2022). She is an educator, story-teller, public speaker and retired librarian and lives with her husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her website is www.shutta.com
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Shutta, I have to begin by asking you about your name. How did it come about and how is it pronounced? An unusual name can be to one’s advantage. In my own case, writers have often said to me ‘your name is a good start’.
My name’s pronounced: shut-ta. It is unusual. It doesn't have any nationality per se. My father's nickname was Shutta. And when I was born, I was the oldest grandchild
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It's always difficult to introduce myself, and "What do you do?" is a hard question to answer. I do so many things! I'm a children's author and a poet. But I'm also a lecturer, a teacher, a mother, a grandmother, a retired librarian, an educator, a Kentuckian and a Michigander, as well as someone who is intoxicated by color and 3-d doodling. (I make quilts, do mosaics, and glue together strange things I find, when I'm not writing.)
Where to start? I think the beginning is best, for storytelling was in my family's blood long before I was born. So . . . I was born in Kentucky. And it was fortunate for me that I happened to be born in the mountains where telling "whoppers" and listening to tall tales long into the night is part of the Appalachian heritage. In those dark and scrawny hollers (narrow valleys) I'd cling to my father's tall legs and stare wide-eyed as I listened to the hair-raising tales my relatives told. We are all big talkers in our family. "Yeaaah, buddy!" (This phrase is Kentuckian for "Tha