how do you say it?

A year or two ago, I discovered one of the best resources ever ever EVER: a directory of children's/YA authors pronouncing their own names (and occasionally explaining a bit about those names). Since I started teaching, I've been both paranoid and vigilant about making sure I know the correct pronunciations of everything, and there are an awful lot of names in the field - actually, just generally in the world - whose pronunciations are not immediately obvious. Scieszka? Stiefvater? Koertge?

Quite a few authors add some tidbit of information about the name's origin, variant pronunciations, etc - and those are strangely delightful to listen to. But I love the site mainly for the totally boring utilitarian value of hearing the authors themselves speaking their names out loud. No messing with pronunciation keys or phonetic alphabets, no fretting over where to lay the stress when you say "Marjane Satrapi."

No excuses now for mispronouncing author names!