new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: #NY15SCBWI, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 41
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: #NY15SCBWI in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Click on over to read this chat between SCBWI Team Blog's Martha Brockenbrough and debut author/illustrator Mike Curato.
They talk day jobs and publishing dreams, polka dot elephants and shows at cupcake stores. Martha even gets Mike's time-traveling advice to himself years ago, which includes this gem:
"Make things that make you smile inside."
Mike's publishing journey is one of our "SCBWI Success Stories" featured at the upcoming 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference on a Friday afternoon panel (that I'll be moderating, and that will also feature Martha herself!)
Mike will also be co-leading a Saturday Breakout session with agent Brenda Bowen on "The Artist Agent Relationship!"
We hope you can join us for #LA15SCBWI – and perhaps it will be the path to your own SCBWI Success Story!
Detailed conference information and registration here.Illustrate and Write On,Lee
And as we say in Los Angeles, "That's a wrap!"
Thank you for joining us here on the Official SCBWI Conference blog!
 |
| Lee Wind (top), and left to right: Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik, Martha Brockenbrough and Don Tate! |
We hope you'll join Team Blog from July 31-Aug 3, 2015 in Los Angeles for all the craft, business, inspiration, opportunity and community the SCBWI Summer Conference offers!
 |
| Linda Olafsdottir |
About Linda:
Linda Olafsdottir is an Icelandic illustrator, based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Linda’s been drawing ever since she could hold a pencil, and she’s still drawing every single day and never gets tired of it.
Linda got her MFA degree in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Picture books are her passion and she’s constantly being inspired by her two children and her surroundings. Most recently Linda illustrated three books for Sterling Publishing.
 |
| One of the book covers Linda created for Sterling Publishing |
Her work has also been published in several picture and chapter books for publishers in Iceland. In 2014 Linda received Ibby’s (The International Board of Books for Young People) “Spring Breeze Awards” (
ibby.org) and was one of Iceland's nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards (
alma.se).
You can find out more at
Linda's blog and at her website:
http://www.lindaolafsdottir.com/
 |
| Illustrator Jen Betton |
Jen wrote this about herself: I am a freelance illustrator in the Boston area, where I also teach at a local art college. I have a BFA in painting from the University of Central Florida, and an MFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. I also learned amazing things at the Illustration Academy.
I love working in watercolor, solving visual problems, and seeing a story come to life through creating image. My illustrations are primarily narrative, although I also do editorial and advertising work as well, and my pieces have appeared in CMYK, 3x3 Magazine, and Illustration West.
Jen's blog is at
http://www.jenbetton.blogspot.com/ and you can visit her website here:
http://www.jenbetton.com/
 |
| Bryan Langdo |
About Bryan:
Bryan Langdo has illustrated nearly 30 books for children. His picture book Tornado Slim and the Magic Cowboy Hat won a 2012 Spur Award from Western Writers of America.
He is also an editor/writer for an ESL website and app. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two kids.
Bryan's website:
http://www.bryanlangdo.com/home.htm
It's not every day that you get to listen to a closing keynote by the guy who JUST WON THE NEWBERY!
But that's how this 2015 conference came to a close, with a rousing talk by the one and only
Kwame Alexander, author of 18 books including CROSSOVER, which the New York Times called "a beautifully measured novel"�and the Newbery committee agreed.
His talk
started with a standing ovation from the excited crowd, and it's no wonder.
Kwame has contributed hugely to the world of children's literature. In addition to all of his beautiful books, he created the Book-in-a-Day literacy program that's generated more than 3,000 student authors at 69 schools across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean.
He started off with a story about how he courted his wife.
"I wrote her a poem a day for the first year." He even read us some of that poetry, which no doubt made more than one of us fall in love with him just a little bit. And he showed us what an incredible storyteller he is, talking about his family, about how he came to give this talk today, and even about the suit he stood onstage in.
When he was starting out, he took himself on a 30-city tour to sell a book of poetry (including in a church!), and found a job in a public school working that paid $25 an hour for working as a poet—but only for an hour a day.
In being a parent and in working with students, he realized he could write love poems for teenagers.
He wrote a book of funny, emotional, and sad poetry for kids, which he read all around the country including in a juvenile detention facility. No one wanted it, so he published it himself and got a starred review. He also sold 13,000 copies in the first year.
"This writing life is not just sitting in your room with a pencil and paper. It's about getting out in the world and having something to write about," he told us.
But you also have to sell it and bring it to the world. "It's not just about writing and being an artist. You have to master the business side of writing."
His Book in a Day program has turned into something incredible, traveling around the country and the world teaching kids to write poetry, and working with other writers at a fellowship he created after his application to one was turned down. This is part of his philosophy—not letting other people's "nos" define his yes.
It was an incredible talk: hilarious, heartfelt, and full of wisdom and truth. It's hard to think of a better way to end a conference—or turn the next page in our careers as writers and illustrators. And yes, we gave him a standing ovation at the end as well.
 |
| Cindy Derby |
About Cindy:
Cindy Derby is a children’s book writer, illustrator and puppeteer.
She began her journey as a puppeteer building puppets and performing in shows all over the world (including living rooms and underground railway stations). She was commissioned by Puppet Animation Scotland to produce her puppetry fable “Edward’s House of String”; and awarded by the Jim Henson Foundation to produce her one-woman puppetry musical “Mr. Kyoto’s Aquarium Shop”.
Continuing her love of storytelling, Cindy began creating picture books. She loves to use watercolor, acrylic, black ink, and cuts out pieces and collages it together digitally.
She currently lives in Marin County, California where her art studio is a big lovely mess with large fur balls from her dog.
Cindy's website:
http://www.cindyderby.com/
Jennifer Laughran is a senior agent at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She joined ABLA in 2007 after many years as a buyer and event coordinator for an independent bookstore. Jenn is always on the lookout for sparkling YA and middle grade fiction with unusual and unforgettable characters and vivid settings; the common thread in all her favorite stories is an offbeat world-view. She loves funny books, thrilling books, romantic books, books that make her cry, and all-around un-put-downable books.
 |
| Jennifer Laughran on the big screen - and on the Agents Panel |
Jennifer talks about the scope of her agenting, from big picture to deals to day-to-day author/illustrator care. A few highlights:
She goes into detail about the ways she helps her illustrator clients get their work in front of art directors and agents. Hint: make sure you have a good website with an online portfolio, showing a broad range of styles, action, movement, kid characters...
In fielding a question about how she feels about clients who want to write in two different genres, Jennifer says it depends: "Are you good at both?" She cites her client
Kate Messner's range of titles, genres and categories and how they strategize Kate's releases with a color-coded calendar! (p.s. - she's sold 30 books for Kate!)
Query letters: Long enough to cover what she needs to know, but short enough to intrigue her.
On success: "George" is a middle-grade debut novel by Alex Gino
that Jennifer sold overnight to Scholastic. They got it Monday evening and made an offer Tuesday morning. It's being talked about as an overnight success. Except for the eight years Alex spent writing it. And the additional year the author worked with Jennifer on the book before it was sent out on submission. So it's really "a decades-long success."
Jennifer represents a lot of established authors and also a lot of debut authors. She looks out at the room of over 1,000 authors and illustrators and tells us she's always looking for new people, and hopes some of her future clients are in the room.
Agent Brenda Bowen (at podium, right) moderates the panel - right to left, Barry Goldblatt, Jennifer Laughran and Tina Wexler.
 |
| Illustrator Keith Frawley |
Keith's bio: Keith Frawley: Dad, Husband, Illustrator, Goofball, Cookie Monster & Backyard Kickball Champion.
Keith Frawley is a New York based illustrator. Keith illustrates for the children’s market and for national agencies. His work appears in children’s books, apps & character design.
“Normal gets you just that; stay weird.” -Keith Frawley
James Dashner is the author of the
Maze Runner, recently released as a film by Twentieth Century Fox. His other works include
The Eye of Minds and
The 13th Reality.
A favorite thing before being published was going to conferences like this one to hear other writers' stories.
James has always loved stories, and writing them, even though they were really bad. He also read like crazy:
Charlotte's Web,
Hardy Boys,
James and the Giant Peach. James studied accounting in college, but he still dreamed of being a writer and he wrote his first novel.
A small publisher published his first books and because of them he was able to connect with writers and agents. He then wrote the
Maze Runner and it was rejected across the board. But he didn't quit. He went on to write
The 13th Reality, again to a small publisher. After, he took out the
Maze Runner again, rewrote it, and sent it to his now agent. It sold!
The Maze Runner has now been published in many foreign markets, and Twentieth Century Fox made the movie.
James has a stack of 30 or 40 rejections, most belonging to the
Maze Runner. His successes are a combination of sticking with it, not giving up, but he admits he also had some really lucky breaks. If you quit you don't give yourself the chance to get those lucky breaks.
"You have no idea how thankful I am every day that I didn't give up."
After Lin leads us in a Happy Birthday serenade to Jane Yolen, Jane takes the podium.
Jane speaks about starting and re-starting careers, explaining the motivation for her establishing the Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Award.
This year there was an honoree (Jane Mitchell) and a winner, and the winner was here - Jane called Sanna Stanley up on stage to applause!
Congratulations to both Jane Mitchell and Sanna Stanley!
And you can find out more about the
Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Grant here.
Cautioning us that a lot of what we've lost is the institutional memory of children's books, Jane Yolen asks us to remember Bernice "Bee" Cullinan, who was past president of ILA (International Literacy Association) and began Wordsong at Boyds Mills Press - which was the only dedicated poetry line in children's books.
Bernice passed away earlier this month. You can find out more about Bernice in this tribute article here.
It's an exciting moment as Sarah Baker announces the two honorees and the winner, who will get three appointments with art directors!
Winner: Mika Song
Honors: Jean Kim
Suzanne Kaufman
Lin introduces the people behind the magic of SCBWI year-round, from right to left: Sara Rutenberg, Gee Cee Addison Bahador, Kayla Heinen, Kim Turrisi, Sarah Baker, Brandon Clarke, Chelsea Confalone and Joshua Smith!
And as Lin brings them up on stage, the crowd rises to its feet in a thank-you ovation.
.jpeg?picon=2287)
By: Lee Wind, M.Ed.,
on 2/7/2015
Blog:
The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Jennifer Laughran,
Tina Wexler,
LGBTQ,
Lee Wind,
Laurent Linn,
Arthur A. Levine,
Emma Dryden,
#NY15SCBWI,
Jane Yolen,
Add a tag
With conference faculty guest agent Tina Wexler, agent Jennifer Laughran, Art Director and Author Laurent Linn, Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author Jane Yolen, editor Emma Dryden and editor and publisher Arthur A. Levine, our group of more than forty attendees gathered to share and talk about writing and illustrating LGBTQ characters and themes in works for children and teens.
In moments ranging from hilarious to somber, topics covered included picture book art notes (dos and don'ts), gender non-conformity, gender challenges in the English language, and the urgent need for more books with LGBTQ diversity.
At one point, an ally voiced a concern about writing from a queer perspective, and the consensus was to not hold back about writing from other points of view (outside your own.) To do your homework, to run it by people who are members of that community...
Arthur: "I urge you to not be self-conscious"
Jane: "In terms of getting it right. In terms of getting the feelings right."
It was a great conversation and the room was filled with a sense of warmth and community. We sat in a circle, each person sharing their name and what they're working on, with our conference faculty (and myself) chiming in with thoughts, advice and insights.
Once the session ended, many participants stayed to exchange contact information and mingle. The pictures are from that part of the evening:
I was honored to host - my thanks and appreciation to the panel and all the attendees!
Lee
Kami Garcia is the New York Times best-selling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures & Dangerous Creatures novels and the author of the instant New York Times bestseller and Bram Stroker nominated novel Unbreakable and the sequel Unmarked, in the Legion Series.
SCBWI was the first professional conference she ever attended.
Kami became a writer accidentally. During a fantasy-book club meeting with her students, they shared what they wanted in a book. Kami then discussed
this her friend, Margaret Stohl, over tacos, and they brainstormed the story. With a dare, and interested teens pushing them along, they finished the story.
The coauthors didn't think of it as a book, they thought of it as a story. They planned to put it up online for people to read. Free.
Thankfully the two received some advice to put on the brakes, and ended up with some help along the way. Unexpectedly, they had an agent, Beautiful Creatures was going to auction, and many crazy successes followed.
So often with books, it's not just having a good book, it's timing, being in the right place at the right time.
The reason it worked? Kami believes she and her coauthor would never have written the book if they wrote it to be published. That gave them the freedom to break a lot of rules. And they did.
Writing her own book proved more difficult because now she was writing for money.
What Kami knew was that finding the right book at the right time can save a life. It was the Outsiders for her.
As Kami works on her next book, she doesn't know if it's what her publisher or editor will like or want, but she hope that it might be that right book for a reader.
This is what Brooklyn-based illustrator Scott Brundage does.
Author-illustrator Hervé Tullet, author of PRESS HERE, MIX IT UP! discusses his path to publication from young artist who believed he could not draw, to published author and illustrator. Tullet’s books are an interactive experience of call and response. His books are read and played! The audience laughs uproariously as he reads his early books, story time style. His keynote ended with a standing ovation. That was fabulous!
Emily Clement is an associate editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. She has worked on books by Shaun Tan, Jaclyn Moriarty, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Erin Bow, among others.
She manages her imprint’s international literature program, and has edited books translated from German, Dutch, and Russian. Emily attended Stanford University, followed by the Columbia Publishing Course, and translates children’s books from Italian. She grew up in Tempe, Arizona, and now lives in Brooklyn.
She talked to us about what that tricky word "literary" means, and how we can achieve it in our writing. But first, she told us the backstory behind a Russian novel coming out on the Arthur A. Levine spring list.
Called "Playing A Part," it was published just after Russie passed anti-gay propaganda laws. While it wasn't illegal for the book to be published, it could not be shelved with children's books.
After she read about it in
The Atlantic, she looked into acquiring it, not knowing whether it was well written or appropriate for their list. She discovered a "gorgeous, beautiful, moving, and sensitive novel." And now it's the first young adult novel to be translated from Russian into English.
"It's crazy that hasn't happened before," she said.
The word "literary" is a tricky one for her. She doesn't love talking about books as literary or commercial because the two things aren't mutually exclusive. And some people are put off by the concept of literary, so she always tries to pair the word "accessible with it."
Here are four items from her list of seven essential literary qualities:
- It's about something. The book tackles a big idea and one of the larger themes of life, challenging the reader to think from a new angle.
- It has voice. Voice is informed by the character and his or her world, and makes your work engaging and feel authentic.
- It has plot. You can tell if your plot is lacking if you can't explain your book's premise in a few sentences (and the usual cause is that your voice is getting in the way).
- It has resonant details. "Every piece of clothing, every meal, every book your characters read" is intentional.
Some books Emily recommends for their literary qualities:
It was announced this week that Kwame Alexander won the 2015 Newbery Award for his middle grade novel, The Crossover!
Kwame is a poet and author of eighteen books, including Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band (The 2014 Michigan Reads One Book Selection), He Said, She Said (a Junior Library Guild Selection.) He is the founder of Book-in-a-Day, a student-run publishing program that has created more than 3,000 student authors; and LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy project that builds libraries, trains teachers, and empowers children through literature. The Kwame Alexander Papers, a collection of his writings, is held at the George Washington University Gelman Library.
The room is PACKED for Kwame Alexander.
He has us cracking up, telling us about finding time to write and balancing that with spending time with his family.
If we want to write diverse characters, we've got to READ books with diverse characters.
He addresses the fear of being disrespectful, people who say they don't know any diverse people so they can't write that. He says we write books about zombies and vampires and we don't know any of
them. It's a cop out to say we don't know diverse characters.
He reads some amazing poems/passages from his Newbery Award-winning THE CROSSOVER, asking us questions about what we know about the character, and why? Is the character Black? Why do we think so? How do we separate out the author from the work?
He shares that a teacher contacted him, saying she needed to know the race of the main character before book-talking The Crossover to her students. He said why? She said the kids were going to ask her. He didn't tell her, but said, let me know if they ask.
The kids never asked.
The problem is not the kids reading the books. The problem is us. In the way we are writing and the way our perceptions color our books."We have to change our way of thinking of diversity."
"You have to LIVE a diverse life."
He speaks of bringing the power of words and stories to children in other countries. Of his six trips to Ghana, and the 200 children in a village who had never seen a book with a Black character in it before he visited them.
Kwame calls up Pam Allyn of
LitWorld, who shares a story of children in a rural village. She took a photo of them, and then showed them the image - and they had
no idea which child they were in the photo. Because in their village, they had no mirrors, no glass, no reflections - they didn't know what they looked like. The power of being able to see themselves in a book is so powerful! Children need mirrors.
Kwame talks about the assumptions about the color of a character based on the book's author if its not called out otherwise, and he tells us to "be bold!"
Assert our vision.
He shares a great list of seven tips and wisdom, including these two:
#3. Be Authentic
(You don't have to make a big thing out of the diverse characters and elements, unless the story dictates that you make a big thing out of the diverse characters and elements.)
#7. Be intentional in your effort to write the kind of world you want your children to live, learn and love in.
Humble. Proud. Charming. Brilliant.
Kwame Alexander - awesome!
Jessica Garrison is a senior editor at Dial.
Jessica shares, with a packed room, rules for creating picture books. But more importantly, she gives everyone reasons to break those rule with examples that have worked!
So, let's jump into the rules and cheer for the rule breakers!
RULE: A picture book should be short.
But not if it's EASTER CAT by Deborah Underwood.
This book came in as a 60 page picture book which included art notes and sketches, breaking yet another rule.
RULE: A picture book text should not include art notes (or sketches).
EASTER CAT was full of them. This book needed the extra pages and information for it to work.
RULE: A picture book should not have an adult protagonist.
Unless it's A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE by Philip C Stead.
The spirit of this story is organic and kid level which makes it work.
RULE: A picture book should be character driven rather than concept driven.
Unless it's PRESS HERE by Hevré Tullet.
There are no characters in this book. The main character is the reader.
RULE: A picture book should not be wordless.
Unless it's a book like THE FARMER AND THE CLOWN by Marla Frazee.
This one might have made Jessica cry the first time she read it. The illustrations require no text to be deeply felt and followed.
RULE: A picture book should have a take away.
Unless it's DRAGONS LOVE TACOS by Adam Rubin.
You might be able to dig deep for a take away from this book, but even if it was removed, this picture book still works.
RULE: A picture book should have varied, emotive artwork.
Unless it's I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen.
The bear in this book is deadpan, which a huge reason why it works.
RULE: A picture book should have...pictures.
THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by B.J. Novak.
This book breaks so many rules, Jessica could dedicate an entire session to it.
It's important to know the rules. The rules are helpful, but the great thing is, you can break those rules to create something special. Picture book making is an art, not a science.
As this morning's Children’s Books Editors’ Panel wound down, publishers predicted the future of picture books. Publisher Justin Chanda, who once declared that the picture book is dead, now says that picture books are on the upswing. Here are a few bullet predictions:
- Shorter, funnier picture books texts. Authors need to cut, cut, cut their texts! Picture books are are also aging downwards. Think: ages 4 to 6.
- The title of a book can make a huge difference in its success. Go with simple titles that are easy to remember. Publisher Justin Chanda says: “Dare to be obvious.”
- Sweet, funny, not too edgy.
Liz Tingue is an associate editor at Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Seven Things You Need to Know About Writing YA
1. Do read a lot, but don’t only read YA.
2. Do get a social media presence and network with other writers, but don’t spend so much time tweeting that you forget to write your novel.
3. Do get to know your characters—like, really well—don’t forget the difference between Wants and Needs.
4. Do write in the first person if a singular voice comes to you, but don’t force it.
5. Do make maps for your plot and structure, but don’t be afraid to stray once in a while.
6. Do join a supportive critique group, and don’t be scared of a little tough love.
7. Do persevere when the going gets tough, but don’t be afraid to walk away if a project just isn’t coming together.
View Next 15 Posts
