Kleven, Elisa

Elisa Kleven is an author and illustrator of several children's books. She was born on October 14, 1958 in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from the Univerity of California at Berkeley in 1981. In 1983, she received her teaching credentials and went on to teach fourth grade and art. A self-taught artist, her unique multi-media illustrations have brought her much success and numerous awards. Kleven once told SATA: "A comment I hear often about my work is, 'It looks like you were having fun when you made this!' I never know exactly how to respond. I agonize a lot over my stories and my pictures." Her illustrations have also be described as "an excuberant jumble of detail and pattern" and "a tasty visual smorgasbord." Her illustrations are often featured in books about Latin-American culture.

Kleven is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Amnesty International, World Wildlife Fund. She has two children, Mia and Ben, two cats, Luna and Chihiro, and a dog named Jenny. She lives in Albany, California.

Biographical source: Somthing About the Author, Vol. 173., pp. 94-98. Elisa Kleven's website: http://www.elisakleven.com/index.html

From the guide to the Elisa Kleven Papers, 1994-1999, (University of Minnesota. Children's Literature Research Collections. [clrc])