About Anthony Manna

Dr. Anthony L. Manna

ANTHONY L. MANNA, Ph.D., is a retired, award-winning Kent State University (Ohio) professor and researcher of children’s and young adult literature, literacy development, drama, writing, and critical thinking.

A New Jersey native, he received his doctorate from the University of Iowa, Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University (high honors), and his B. A. from Seton Hall University (with honors). He has taught on nearly every grade level, from preschool to graduate school, and has held positions at the American College in Istanbul, Turkey, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, the University of Maine (Farmington), and the Center for Literature and Medicine (Hiram College/Northeast Ohio College of Medicine), where he received a fellowship to research the intersection of the arts and the practice of medicine and healing. 

He is the recipient of Kent State University’s Distinguished Teaching Award, Kent State’s Student Choice Award, and the Arbuthnot Award from the International Reading Association for outstanding university teaching.

Manna is a former member of the executive board of the Children’s Literature Association, former Director of Publications for the Association, and former editor of various columns in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

The co-author of Children’s Literature for Health Awareness and co-editor of Many Faces, Many Voices: Multicultural Literary Experiences for Youth and Art and Story: The Role of Illustration in Multicultural Literature for Youth. he has published numerous articles, book reviews, and book chapters on literature, drama, and teaching both in the U.S.A. and abroad.

The children’s picture book he co-authored with Soula Mitakidou, Mr. Semolina-Semolinus: A Greek Folktale (Simon & Schuster, 1997; Aladdin Paperbacks, 2015) was selected a 1998 Notable Children’s Book of the Year by the American Library Association, was listed among the one hundred best books of the year by the New York Public Library, and was the 1997 Marion Vannett Ridgway Award for first-time authors and illustrators recipient.

In 2002, he co-authored a collection of twenty stories titled Folktales from Greece: A Treasury of Delights (Greenwood Press World Folklore Series). His most recent picture book, The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece (Schwartz & Wade/Random House 2011) was selected a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2012.

* * *