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In The Studio at New York Comic Con 2025, Popverse’s Ashley V. Robinson got the chance to sit down with Ann M. Martin for a wide-ranging conversation about the beloved author’s prodigious career. Martin, who is the creator of the internationally bestselling Baby-Sitter Club prose series, was attending her very first comic con. During the conversation in The Studio, Martin shared what she’s been up to lately with Robinson.

The information was shared after Robinson asked about Martin’s daily writing routine. Martin stated that she doesn’t spend much time writing anymore, to which Robinson responded, “We all want to believe that someday you’ll come out with another mysterious offering for us.”

Martin shared that at the peak of her writing, she’d spend the morning writing, while the afternoons were devoted to correspondence, reading galleys and other business concerns.

Then Martin shared how she spends her time these days.

“I do a lot of sewing, and I also foster cats for the SPCA. It takes up a lot of time and is a lot of fun. And then I have an organization called The Lisa Libraries, and we bring brand-new children’s books to kids in underserved communities or kids in the foster care system. And that takes up a lot of my time, and is really rewarding and fun.”

Robinson asked, “Why is working with children and keeping children literate important to you?”

Martin responded, “Well, my father was a cartoonist and my mother was a preschool teacher, but they were both very creative people. So the house my sister and I grew up in was filled with books, filled with art supplies. And my parents read aloud to us when we were little. We got books as gifts. So there was this through line of books and reading. And it just gave me so much pleasure that I wanted to give it back to other kids, especially to kids who don’t have easy access to books.”

Are you curious about the rest of the conversation between Robinson and Martin? You’re in luck, because you can enjoy the entire video interview right now:

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A genre fiction literary column called If It Bleeds, We Read

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.