Fall 2026      Volume 54, Number 4

Authors, Books, and Beyond: A Conversation with Caroline McAlister
By Amina Chaudhri

Document: Column  

Introductory Paragraph:   Caroline McAlister’s recent book, A Line Can Go Anywhere: The Brilliant, Resilient Life of Artist Ruth Asawa, was chosen as an Honor Book by the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award committee for its strong message of art, peace, and creativity as a response to violence and a way to bring people together. Moreover, this gentle biography highlights the contributions of an Asian-American woman to the arts and gives readers a glimpse into her formative years and magnificent career as an artist who defied convention and made unique, beautiful sculptures. Caroline is also the author of two other biographies, John Ronald’s Dragons and Finding Narnia, about the boyhoods of the authors J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, respectively. In this interview, Caroline talks about her endless love of reading (paper, not electronic books), forged in a childhood full of books and shared reading time, and how her career as a teacher of writing at Guilford College overlapped with her journey into becoming a children’s book author.

DOI:   https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.54.4.2026.71

Page Numbers:   71-77