Bruce McMillan

Bruce McMillan VWS (Vermont Watercolor Society) (May 10, 1947- ) is a contemporary American author of children books, a photo-illustrator[1] and watercolor artist living in Shapleigh, Maine.[2] Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in Bangor, Maine, and Kennebunk, Maine. He received a degree in biology from the University of Maine.[3] In addition to his 45 children's books, seven of them set in Iceland, he's authored two books of humor, Punography, featured in Life magazine, and Punography Too. His interest in biology is often reflected in his books' topics.[4] He's published three genres of children's picture books: concept books, nonfiction and fiction. In 2006 he was honored by the Maine Library Association with the Katahdin Award honoring his outstanding body of work of children’s literature in Maine.

McMillan's watercolor art has been in numerous juried shows in New England and his 2018 Winter Olympics curling watercolors were a two-page feature in the Maine Sunday Telegram Arts Section. His watercolor Browns Head Light Vinalhaven was Best in Show at the Port Clyde (Maine) Art Gallery Third Annual Invitational 10 x 10 Show in 2017. His watercolors are in private collections in the US, Canada, Iceland and Switzerland.

McMillan's most noted award winning children's book is Nights of the Pufflings (1995), set on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. The story introduces a local children's tradition of rescuing young birds, pufflings (a name he coined), who take their first flight on August nights, some stranded in the village streets. The children then set them free at the beach at daytime. His books were the first photo-illustrated children's books ever featured on the covers of The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books (Nights of the Pufflings), The Horn Book Guide (Nights of the Pufflings) and Booklinks magazine (Mary Had a Little Lamb).

McMillan's honored with a permanent corner in the Springvale (Maine) Public Library's Children's Room, The Bruce McMillan Corner, where nine of his original photo-illustrations from Grandfather's Trolley are on permanent display.

McMillan's taught Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Children's Picture Books for the Professional Development division open to the public at the University of Southern Maine and the University of New Hampshire, where he still teaches at UNH after forty years, with students successfully published by major US publishers. He's spoken at hundreds of schools and conferences in the US.

Several of McMillan's children's books were translated into other languages, Icelandic, German and Korean. Hand-colored original photo-illustrations from Grandfather's Trolley are in the public collections of the Mazza Collection, University of Findlay, Findlay, Ohio, Keene State College original children's art collection, Keene, New Hampshire, and the Springvale (Maine) Public Library.