Emma Walton Hamilton is an author, editor, arts educator and arts and literacy advocate. She has co-authored twenty children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, five of which have been New York Times best-sellers, including the recent anthology Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies (illustrated by James McMullan). Emma’s own book, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won two silver medals from the Living Now and IPPY Book Awards in the parenting category. It also received Honorable Mention from ForeWord Magazine’s Best Book of the Year awards.

Emma is Editorial Director for The Julie Andrews Collection (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Harper Collins), a publishing program dedicated to quality books for young readers that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder.  She is also a faculty member of Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Writing and Literature Program, where she serves as Director of their annual Children’s Literature Conference, Co-Director of the Playwriting Conference, and Executive Director of YAWP (the Young American Writers Project), an inter-disciplinary writing program for middle and high school students.  

A former actress, Emma worked in theater, film and television for ten years before turning her attention towards directing, producing, educating and writing. She was a faculty member at the Ensemble Studio Theater Institute, then became one of the founders of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York.  She served as Bay Street’s Co-Artistic Director for thirteen years, at which point she chose to focus her energies on the Theatre’s educational and young audiences programs. Until 2008, her role there encompassed bringing theater to young people on Long Island and in New York City as Director of Education and Programming for Young Audiences.

Emma also works as a freelance children’s book editor, and teaches courses in writing for children, both for Stony Brook Southampton and online. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY, with her husband, producer/actor Stephen Hamilton and their two children. For more information, please visit http://www.emmawaltonhamilton.com.