Saturday, August 10, 2019

Carol Hinz - Elements of Excellent Nonfiction: From Picture Books to Young Adult

Carol Hinz
Carol Hinz
Carol Hinz is editorial director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books, divisions of Lerner Publishing Group. She acquires and edits picture books as well as photo-driven nonfiction. Recent books she’s edited include Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham, Charles Waters, Sean Qualls, and Selina Alko, Let ’Er Buck: George Fletcher, the People’s Champion by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Gordon C. James, and Sachiko, A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson.

Something Carol Hinz loves about her job is seeing how authors and illustrators use the power of their creativity within the confines of nonfiction standards. She also believes nonfiction for young readers plays an essential role in our society, because kids are passionately curious about everything, and nonfiction is a way to support their growth into our future doctors, teachers, scientists, scholars, and voters.

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Carol is actively seeking submissions from Indigenous and PoC book creators, and not just those which focus on issues of identity or historical/current injustice. She wants to publish books by a diverse range of creators on a diverse range of subjects, including science and general history. She strongly urges white book creators to refrain from tacitly or overtly asking people of color for permission to write cross-culturally, because it's simply not possible to give permission for such a choice - if we want to write cross-culturally but don't know enough to do so accurately and respectfully, we need to either do the intense and deep research necessary to acquire that knowledge and insight, or choose to not write that book.

Follow Carol Hinz on Twitter.

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