Michelle Herman

Michelle Herman's eleventh book, ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD--her first novel for young people--will be out in September from Brighton Shore Press. Her most recent book for adults, the essay collection IF YOU SAY SO, is full of true stories about loss and reinvention, longing and loneliness, friendship and community, and family and home--and dance, the dedicated practice of which has led her on an unexpected new path through the next part of her life.

Born and raised in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Michelle Herman taught for many years at Ohio State, where she was a founder of the MFA program in creative writing and founded a graduate interdisciplinary program in the arts. Her previous books include collections of essays, memoirs, novels, short stories, and an advice book for children.

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD tells the story of 11 ½-year-old Charlotte Hartlace, whose best friend since kindergarten, Lyric Jackson-Kenney, is growing up in a hurry, leaving Charlotte behind. To make matters worse, Charlotte’s beloved older sibling, Eli, has moved out, into their own apartment to start their grownup life in the city. What rescues Charlotte from the gloomiest summer of her life is a new and unexpected friendship with her elderly neighbor, Maud Whiton—and Maud’s dog, Murry. But summer turns upside down when Charlotte begins traveling in time--but not to centuries past or the far future: strictly to Charlotte-specific times, people, and places. And after Maud and Murry mysteriously disappear, Charlotte needs both Lyric’s and Eli’s help--and the magic of time-travel--to save them.

Michelle wanted to write a book for 10- to 12-year-olds that looked like the lives of the real-life kids she knows, and at the same time offered a vision of the world she fiercely wishes for them, and she wanted it to be mainly about friendship, like the books she loved most as a child (and still does, honestly). She also wanted it to have the kind of magic in it that she’s always loved best--the kind of magic that occurs in the course of ordinary life and makes perfect sense if you really think about it.

Read Michelle's parenting/family/relationship advice every Sunday in her Care and Feeding column on Slate.