Hester Bass

Hester Bass, Children's Author

Hester Bass is a dream believer, goal achiever, and story weaver. As a child, she made a list of things she wanted to do and places she wanted to go. (Her life has been all about checking things off that list.)

Hester Bass grew up in rural Georgia, close enough to Atlanta to experience the jewels of city life yet still raise tadpoles on the porch. She was shaped by her mother's love of language, her father's love of family, and books by favorite authors such as Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne. Her first story was about a green-eyed cat. Her first job was at a wild animal park. (Read books, write stories, have a job that's fun.)

She was educated in Boston, receiving a B.A. in Communications from Simmons College. Hester traveled to Britain, making her pilgrimage to Liverpool to stand at the edge of the Mersey, just like John. She worked in radio and television advertising and was lead singer of Flight 19. (Be on the radio, know every Beatles song, sing in a rock band.)

She moved to New York to study acting, concentrating on Shakespeare, at the HB Studio in Manhattan. Her day job was delivering singing telegrams to the unknown and the famous, including Andy Warhol and Barbara Walters. Hester appeared with Dick Clark on TV's “$50,000 Pyramid,” winning a pen-and-pencil set and some towels. (Live in great cities, be an actress, be on a game show.)

While in New York, Hester met her husband, an artist and fellow Southerner. They have two creative children, a mellow cat that likes to wear baby clothes, and a playful dog who is a person in a fur suit. Although they never really said goodbye to New York City, they spent fifteen years in Atlanta, seven years in Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and now live at the foot of a mountain in Alabama. (Go where life takes you, dress up the pets, have a happy family.)

Hester has taught kindergartners and first graders to knit on their fingers and hands, and to draw forms in the air and on paper. She has told stories at libraries, schools, museums, and festivals. She has performed voiceovers for commercials. She has visited a dozen foreign countries and over half of the United States. (Work with children, try new things, travel a lot.)

Some things are worth doing more than once, so Hester Bass appeared on another TV game show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” with Meredith Vieira, which went very well. She then tackled a long-held dream of becoming a children's author and, after a few years of hard work and rejections, saw her first children's book become a reality, published by Scholastic. (Enjoy life, be persistent, be a writer.)

So Many Houses is currently available in a hardcover library binding and in paperback. Her next book will be a picture book biography of the remarkable Mississippi artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, to be published by Candlewick Press and illustrated by E. B. Lewis.

Hester Bass has appeared at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Decatur Book Festival, Southern Festival of Books, and the Alabama Book Festival. She visits classrooms and libraries to inspire children to reach for their dreams. She volunteers with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Hester offers conference presentations to help other writers meet their goals. Success happens. Decide what you want and go for it. (Write more books, meet new people, spread the joy.)

Hester is forever adding to her list of things to do and places to go. Recent entries include “Be in a movie,” "Appear on The TODAY Show," and “Visit New Zealand.”