the divine miss pixie woods Cecil Castellucci

about cecil

Cecil Castellucci is the author of  novels for young adults.  Boy Proof , The Queen of Cool and Beige all on Candlewick Press and  Rose Sees Red  on Scholastic Press.   Her first Graphic Novel The Plain Janes launched the DC Comics Minx imprint and she was awarded the 2007 Shuster Award for best Canadian Comic Book Writer.  It was followed up by the sequel  Janes in Love. Her first Picture Book,  Grandma’s Gloves won the California Book Award Gold Medal for juvenile literature.

Her short stories have appeared in various places including Strange Horizons and the anthologies, Teeth, The Eternal Kiss, Geektastic (which she co-edited), Dear Bully, and Interfictions 2.  Her books have been on the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) BBYA, Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists, as well as the NYPL Books for the Teen Age and the Amelia Bloomer list.

Recently she was commissioned by ECM+ to write the libretto for an original opera with music composed by Andre Ristic, Les Aventures de Madame Merveille  which premiered in Montreal on May 6th & 7th 2010 and features art by Cameron Stewart, Michael Cho, Pascal Girard and Scott Hepburn.

She is the recent recipient of two Macdowell Fellowships and the upcoming NASA funded Launchpad space science workshop.

She has previously published stories in the Los Angeles Times Kids Reading Room and for many years was an active Read Aloud volunteer at Mayberry Elementary School in Echo Park.

Performances pieces that she has written and conceived of include; “The Shirt and Other Awkward Stories”, “The Ladies Room”, “My Heart, The Whore”, “Seven Women/Seven Sins” and “Dear Friend.”  “Spinster”, a collaboration with author / performer Jen Sincero was performed in October 2005.  Her first play “Westward Expansion” debuted in Fall 2006 at the Alliance Repertory Company in Los Angeles.

She has participated in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab West and the Banff Centre for the Arts “Writing with Style” program and had both writing and directing assistantships at the Taper. Cecil was a founding member of the Alpha 60 film club. Alpha 60 was a club dedicated to discovering narrative voice and encouraging creative endeavors in film. Other activities included field producer on MTV’s Big Urban Myth Show and Director of Recreating Radio at the Museum of Television and Radio (now known as the Paley Center). In 2006 she wrote and directed her first feature film “Happy Is Not Hard To Be.”  It debuted in Los Angeles at the Alternative Screen series at the Egyptian Theatre.

She currently runs a on again off again literary series in Los Angeles at Skylight Books called The Lit Thing and is the YA editor for the new Los Angeles Review of Books.

Upcoming books in 2011 include her new YA novel First Day on Earth.  2012 brings a new hybrid YA novel The Year of the Beasts illustrated by Nate Powell.  Forthcoming in 2013 book  for young readers, Odd Duck, illustrated by Sara Varon, and The Tin Star, book one in a new Sci Fi series.

In addition to  writing books, she writes plays, makes movies, does performance pieces, and still occasionally rocks out.   Born in New York City to French Canadian parents, she is a citizen of  both America and Canada.  Currently, she lives in Los Angeles.

*photo by Cecil Castellucci