John Cech is Professor Emeritus of English and the former Director of the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature & Culture at the University of Florida.  He was the Creator, Producer, and Host of the Public Radio program, “Recess!”  (cclc.english.ufl.edu/recess)..  His scholarly books include Imagination and Innovation: The Story of Weston Woods; Angels and Wild Things: The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak;  and Charles Olson and Edward Dahlberg: Portrait of a Friendship (1982).  He was also the series developer and editor of American Writers for Children, 1900–1960. 

Cech has written fourteen books for children and two novels for adults, A Rush of Dreamers and Jeshua. John has also written plays for family audiences, and he has contributed seven volumes in Sterling Publishing’s Classic Fairy Tale Series as well as a selection of Aesop’s Fables and a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s 1816 fantasy that we refer to today as The Nutcracker. 

Cech’s numerous articles and reviews have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Child, Children’s Literature, The Horn Book, The New York Times Book Review, Parabola, USA Today, and The Washington Post. He has served as the president of the Children’s Literature Association, the book review editor of Children’s Literature,  and as a commentator for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

John received the Chandler Award of Merit for his scholarship and innovative teaching, and he is the recipient of the Anne Devereaux Jordan Award for his career as a “creator, scholar, and public intellectual. “