Biographies
Maria T. DiVencenzo, Author
Maria T. DiVencenzo is the author of Little House in Brookfield, Little House at the Crossroads, and Little Clearing in the Woods. Together with illustrator Elaine Verstraete, editor Rebecca Davis and designer Amy Manzo Toth, she has worked to bring The Star of Christmas to life, hoping that it will be a magical part of Christmas for all who read it. Maria lives in Western New York with her husband, four children and their shaggy black schnoodle.
Elaine S. Verstraete, Illustrator
Elaine S. Verstraete creates art and illustration from her Middlesex, NY, studio, a renovated hunting cabin that sits nestled near hilltop evergreens with views of the valley below. Elaine has illustrated numerous children’s books, including Many Ways to be a Soldier, Germ Hunter, and Shipwreck Search. Elaine currently teaches illustration at Rochester Institute of Technology, plays folk- and bluegrass-style acoustic bass, and adores the shenanigans of her four Siamese cats, Koto, Shogun, Django, and Fila.
Alixandra Martin, Illustrator
A professional artist for many years, Alix Martin has traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe studying and creating art. She studied art education and taught painting at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL. Her murals can be found in San Francisco, California, Olonzac, France, and The Florida Keys. She currently has her work on display at the Albright Knox Collectors Gallery (Buffalo, NY), in Toronto at the HAG Atelier Gallery, redFISH Art Studios and Gallery in East Aurora, N.Y, the Gallery and Studios she founded, and the neíghborhood collective on Elmwood Ave. in Buffalo N.Y.