Anna Jane Hays

Anna Jane Hays was Vice President/Editor-in-Chief of Book Publishing for Sesame Workshop. She wrote the books So Big!, Cookie See! Cookie Do!, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil. She edited I'll miss you, Mr. Hooper.

After ghost writing in California, she moved to Washington, D.C. to author articles about the Peace Corps for newspapers across the nation, as well as the occasional magazine. Peace Corps director of public information, journalist Robert A. Hatch, was one of several people Joan Ganz Cooney invited to her apartment in [1966]], to discuss creating a children's television series.

Hatch asked Hays to join the organization, once the show aired, but Hays was pregnant. She waited until her child was 6 months old, before signing on in 1970. She became the first editor of Sesame Street Magazine.

Once the magazine was running smoothly, she became interested in the children's book industry, and abundant but unprofitable category. Once publishers were interested, she and other people from the division would get advance scripts from Jon Stone, and occasionally watch the taping. They would then come up with concepts consistent with the characters and curriculum, or directly adapt the episode or skit. Many of the initial books were written in house, due to a limited budget.

Hays attended international workshops and met with foreign publishers.

She spent 29 years with the company, before moving back to New Mexico, becoming the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. She has also written original children's books.