BRATTLEBORO — A look at this year's winners of the Governor's Award for Excellence In The Arts:
• Karen Hesse, of Brattleboro, has written more than 20 novels, primarily for young readers. She grew up in Baltimore, studied at Towson State College, and graduated from the University of Maryland with degrees in English, psychology, and anthropology.
In 2002, Hesse received a MacArthur Fellows Program award. She has also received a 1993 National Jewish Book Award, the 1998 Newberry Medal, the 1998 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the 1993 and 2002 Christopher Awards, and the 2006 Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota.
Her book Out of the Dust, which won the Newberry, is a story of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Hesse's other novels include Witness, the story of the Ku Klux Klan's attempt to recruit members in a small town in Vermont; The Cats of Krasinski Square, a portrayal of the Holocaust; and her latest novel, Safekeeping, published in October.
• Archer Mayor, the author of the Joe Gunther detective series, is a Yale University graduate. Before turning to popular fiction, Mayor, of Newfane, held several jobs, both in the United States and in France, working as an editor, researcher for Time-Life books, photographer, and journalist.
He also worked for the University of Texas Press in the late 1970s, where, as special projects editor, he discovered The Book of Merlyn, the hitherto barely known conclusion to T. H. White's famous The Once and Future King, and helped shepherd it into print.
Mayor's first novel, Open Season, was published in 1988 and was the first of his popular 23-book Vermont-based mystery series. Since then, he has released a new novel almost every year, typically in the fall.
Mayor works as a death investigator for the Vermont State Medical Examiner's office and as a deputy for the Windham County Sheriff's Department. He also has 25 years' experience as a firefighter/EMT.
• Sharon Robinson, cellist, of Guilford, was born in Houston, where both parents were members of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. She graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Peabody Institute.
Robinson made her New York debut in 1974, collaborating with violinist Jaime Laredo and pianist Samuel Sanders. She has performed with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco; the National Symphony; and the English, Scottish, and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestras.
In 1976, Robinson joined colleagues Jaime Laredo and Joseph Kalichstein to create the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which has performed worldwide and is considered among the finest chamber ensembles.
Robinson has participated in music festivals such as Aspen, Edinburgh, Granada, Madeira, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, and Spoleto. She teaches privately and leads master classes worldwide.
She has served on the faculty at Indiana University and recently joined the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
• Stephen Stearns, of Brattleboro, is a teacher, director, professional clown, mime, and actor. He holds degrees from the London Academy and the University of Washington.
Stearns taught theater at Bucks County Community College, went to England for actor training, and returned to the United States to perform in Shakespeare festivals in Oregon and Vermont.
In 1977, he began his solo clown/mime career while simultaneously creating the Horizons Project, a Federal Title IV program that brought Vermont artists into rural Vermont schools.
In 1980, Stearns and writer Peter Gould formed Gould & Stearns: The Clown Jewels of Vermont. Their play, A Peasant of El Salvador, has won several national awards. They are Vermont Arts Council grant recipients and have been sponsored by the Lincoln Center Institute.
Stephen's solo clown show, Right Under Your Nose, teaches children to transmute their handicaps into opportunities.
In 1998, Stearns founded the New England Youth Theatre, which has built performance spaces from an abandoned Chinese restaurant and an unused automobile machine shop. There, he has produced dozens of plays over the years.