Angelica Carpenter, curator of the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at California State University, Fresno, has been elected president of the International Wizard of Oz Club. Her three-year term begins in June, at the Ozmopolitan Convention in Naperville, Ill.
The International Wizard of Oz Club has 1,300 members in all 50 states and 15 countries.
With her mother, Jean Shirley, Carpenter has published the book “L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz.” Carpenter also is a contributing editor to the club’s journal, The Baum Bugle.
Oz Club conventions offer scholarly talks by authors, illustrators and children’s literature scholars. At conventions it is not unusual to see a Ph.D. discussing Oz with a 12¬year-old, as the club offers fans of all ages a forum in which to discuss areas of common interest.
This year’s Ozmopolitan Convention will feature talks by Gregory Maguire, whose novel “Wicked” is the basis of a hit Broadway musical, Michael Patrick Hearn, author of “The Annotated Wizard of Oz,” and John Fricke, author of “Judy: A Portrait in Art & Anecdote,” a new biography of Judy Garland.
For more information, contact the Arne Nixon Center at anc@listserv.csufresno.edu or
(559) 278-8116.
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