#SCBWISummerSpec: In Conversation with JASON REYNOLDS, NIC STONE, & CAITLYN DLOUHY

I just finished practicing my Beyonce dance breaks as I get ready for a visit with Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, and Caitlyn Dlouhy. I laid out the regulars. Four of his books that I love, a copy of DEAR MARTIN written by Nic Stone, and a sandwich. There is a contest going on at the house. If Jason mentions some of his title, I have to stand and do a Beyonce dance break. I have been practicing all weekend. What would make my day is if Jason doesn't mention his work. But that wouldn't be fun since more than five thousand SCBWI members are tuned in. It is past 2:30 and I'm sitting here,  pen, paper, ZOOM waiting room, and Beyonce on pause.

Nic Stone enters. Her face glowing, smile big and bright as if she was auditioning for a toothpaste commercial, pure #BlackGirlMagic radiating through the computer screen. She briefs us, the five thousand members glued to the screen waiting to take notes as we listen to the winning formulas from Jason Reynolds, The National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature and award-winning writer. 

Nic introduces CAITLYN DLOUHY and JASON REYNOLDS. Nic informs us she will be discussing craft with Jason and immediately grabbed two pens and a bigger notebook. "You were really something," she said to Jason. WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST by Reynolds captivated her. She loved the voice in his work. She asked him about writing “voice” in his novel and how he does it so well. "It is a hard thing to pin down," Jason responded. Jason wants to be in an authentic place when he writes. But how do you write an authentic story? According to Reynolds, “Be an authentic person. Create a protagonist and spend time with them. Get to know them. Put them in an environment with challenges.”

Yes, Nic. It is difficult for writers to find their voice when they write. Jason states that in his career he has been  "shooting from the hip." He continued to say, "I'm just doing the thing that seem right for me." Reynolds strategy is to build his character through the people in their lives. This is deep! Jason is like me a PANTSER! However, he admits, sometimes he might outline a little, but barely.

When asked what her preference is, Nic says, “I’m an outliner.” She starts with a character template filled out for the character in detail. In which, Jason interrupted to let her know he hates doing the double work of writing to write again. I’m dead. "I wish I had the discipline and developed the muscle to be an outliner," Jason said. Me too, Jason! Me too!

Jason's mother was a smart woman who told him, "Nobody remembers a bad review. Everyone remembers a bad response." I love Mamas. This is so true. 

One of the things that stood out to me was when Jason said, “I don’t take myself seriously. I do take my work seriously. I always tap into the child in me.” As a children’s writer, this is so important. To think back to when you were a child. Time have changed, but kids are kids. There are developmental mile stones that are synonymous across the board for many children. I felt that.

Jason stared into the camera. “‘People say writing is who I am.’ No writing is what I do.”  And in that moment, that brief moment, he mentioned the late Whitney Houston who was deemed and labelled, “The Voice.” This was an aha moment for me. Jason noted that when Whitney’s voice started to go, her life started to jump off the rails as well. How profound. This is why writing will not define him. “Writing is what you do, not who you are!” Jason said. “Writing is what I do. I can never attach what I do to my personhood, to my character… If I can’t figure out how to still be Jason, then I never was Jason.” This profound-ation is all I need today. I need to type this up, print it out, and recite it every day while I do a mini Beyonce dance break.

On developing his characters, Jason listen to his characters. He allows them to talk to him, to tell him their stories. “At some stage, our protagonist will stop telling us about them because that’s what real people do. That’s when we create a secondary character that will tell us more about them [the first character], and so the story moves on.” Caitlyn, Jason’s editor co-signed this sentiment and added, “If their inner lives do not match their voice that’s when you have to dig deeper.”

When talking about revisions, I knew my editor and agent wish I was more like Jason. When he receives an editorial letter, he leaves them on the counter, walks around them a bit, shade them, side-eye them, and after weeks, dive in. Me, I get notes from my editor. I immediately open and start revising. Because, she told me what she needs to see. If the character needs more agency on the page, I’ve already been working that out in my brain while she had the manuscript. I already had plans on fixing different things if they ever come back in her editorial letter. Her editorial letter is confirmation of my suspicion. The Army prepares you to always have a solution readily available. So, technically, I’ve been revising in my head the whole time she had the manuscript. 

When asked about the Black Lives Matter movement, both Nic and Jason had thoughts. Jason said, “All I’m asking is that you live your life in a way that makes my life more safe.” 

What writers can take away from Jason, Nic, and Caitlyn?

• Start a story a chapter late and end it a chapter early.

• Write all the way to the perfect ending, then chop that chapter off.

• If you are a pantser, it is okay. It doesn’t mean you will not be a great writer.

• If you are an outliner, that is okay. Just write.

• The writer/editor relationship is special. “We are working in tandem with our editors.” ~ Jason Reynolds

• Be deliberate with your word choice, “There may be ten words on the page, but ten thousand underneath.”

• Let kids be kids and encourage them to be inquisitive. “One of the worst things we’ve taught kids is that there are some questions that are inappropriate.”

• Writing is a microcosm of the living experience. 

AND NEVER STOP WRITING....

A Conversation with Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, a kidlit power couple more enjoyable to listen to surely than any Branjelina or Bennifers 1.0 or 2.0.

They've done SIX amazing books together and Jon jokes that they started out as friends but are no longer. Jon is teasing, of course, it's rare authors and illustrators are in touch at all during the picturebook-making process! But these two working closely together equals Caldecott Honors and Horn Book and E.B. White award stickers slapped deservedly on some of our absolutely most favorite picture books of the 21st century. Mac says their working relationship is an 'anabolized' version of the way words and art should work together in a picture book: Two simple organisms (Mac and Jon) combine to be one much stronger, better entity (like the Decepticons combining into The Devastator).

For example:

Mac reads us their book, SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE.

88% sure Mac and Jon would not eat this

A book idea that sprang from a lighthearted discussion over heavy breakfast foods on the design puzzle of book trim sizes.

Jon had been talking to Mac about how his I WANT MY HAT BACK series was often difficult to shelve at bookstores and libraries because the books are so wide. So for fun Jon and Mac started spitballing ideas that would lend themselves well to a very tallll book. To Mac and Jon the sky is boring, thus digging down was the answer.

And the art you brainstorm when digging down leads itself very well to being a sequential image series which is another good checkmark to check on the well-made picture book checklist.

Exercise: Try taking advantage of the form or treating something like trim size as a constraint/puzzle to solve even before you pick the plot in a picture book. 

Jon and Mac never start with theme or message, they always start with the characters or a visual joke, and how you push that joke beyond the joke into a deeper meaning is one way you can get to your picture book's message. Most funny ideas, says Jon, if you dig deeper on them have a sincere or sad internal, universal truth.

Another benefit of authors and illustrators working together directly, the ability of the art to change or inform the story. Their initial idea of Sam and Dave moving around and missing the diamonds was much, much more complicated visually and had an entire subplot only in the dirt of sparring skeletons and dinosaurs besides the bigger and bigger diamonds. Mac and Jon scrubbed that big, complicated side plot because not only did the diamonds by themselves get great laughs, just having the large diamonds as the art focus on a page meant the images were readable across a crowded room, which Mac says is an important thing to think about when making a picture book.

He mentions the three levels of connection in the world as they apply to reading picture books:

1. Only to yourself (kid reading alone)
2. One to one connection (kid being read to by a caregiver)
3. One to many (kid being read to in a large classroom setting where it's hard to see tiny picture details so some big compositions will shine)

If your book can hit all three of these levels, bonus points to you.

Questions about authors and illustrators working together:

Even if you aren't in touch, authors and illustrators should still consider themselves as equal parts of a team. Mac says authors shouldn't say "So-and-so is illustrating my book," because a picture book is NOT your book yet, it's not even a BOOK without the pictures, so you need to think of the illustrator as having an authorial seat in the picture book making process, too.

#SCBWISummerSpec A Conversation With Jacqueline Woodson Hosted By Nancy Paulsen

    Jacqueline Woodson a New York Times bestseller and winner of awards"too numerous to mention" talked this Sunday morning with her editor Nancy Paulsen an "editor of unheralded reputation." After introducing them Lin Oliver, co-founder of SCBWI, explained how excited SCBWI was to be a virtual fly on the wall for their collaborative conversations. Being able to watch just how these two women were so enthusiastic about their work and  joyful to share their canon was an honor.

    Paulsen began the conversation by setting the scene. She painted a picture of life in the 90s, "listening to Micheal Jackson and dancing off the wall." Paulsen met Woodson after winning the Coretta Scot King award, Woodson had several books published in several publishing houses and had "never thought" of the "canon" of her work. Her agent suggested her book to be auctioned and it was the first auction of a children's book in history. Many publishing houses wanted to simply pay her the low rate they had been paying and sent her to "kick rocks." This is where Paulsen comes in; she was "blown away by the lyrical quality [of Woodson's books] and [loved that] they were short too!

     The shop talk started here, with Woodson speaking about how she struggled with Point of View while writing If You Come Softly. She decided to have Ellie's POV be first person while Jeremiah's POV be third person because he is no longer alive to share his story. Woodson explained that since social media wasn't necessarily a thing at the time, there wasn't any widespread videos or other documentation of the police brutality that Black communities face. 

It was surprising for Woodson to hear many people didn't believe that a Black boy would be killed by police in the book. Unfortunately, these occurrences were normal in Black and brown communities. Woodson continued, talking abut editors roles in the writing process. Editors are "putting these slits through your page to let your light come through," she explained. Paulsen chimed in regarding the bending of restrictions around Young Adult and Middle Grade labels saying, "we worked around that." She explained the shift from previous publishing houses, and how middle grade wasn't so clearly defined when Woodson's books were first being published so even now they flip between middle-grade and YA labels. Paulsen talked about Woodsons dedication to reading her work aloud to work through any problems and how Paulsen herself is now doing the same with any book shes working on.

   

     Woodson spoke about the loss of her grandmother 4 months before she was pregnant with her daughter and how this spurred Show Way, her first picture book, and it's focus on matriarchal lineages. They described the process of finding an illustrator for picture books, Woodson expressing that she did get to pick her illustrator though "not a lot of people get to do that." The process for them is simple, consisting of Paulsen sending over illustrators for Woodson to choose from. Woodson explains that when she first wrote The Other Side it was a story about present day segregation but when E.B Lewis finished the illustrations they were all set in the past. She loved the work but recalls she felt like "this wasn't my book." She laughs about it with Paulsen asking, "remember I was so cranky?" She had to tweak the writing of the book adding quick lines such as, "that's my blouse on the line," to further place the book in the time the illustrations showed. Sp many folks were impacted by the book she calls it the illustrations a blessing in disguise. They both believe having it be set in the past helped its' marketability so to speak. Paulsen explaining that setting in the past makes folks more comfortable imagining segregation as an issue of days gone by. Woodson agrees, explaining that she can use the book in classrooms as an entry to speaking about the segregation that still occurs today. Later, Laurie Halse Anderson, another New York Times best seller with her own panel on Tuesday and friend of the pair, asks "is it possible that the time has come to reissue The Other Side with the illustrations Jackie was first thinking about?" "That's interesting!" Paulsen nods. Lin Oliver, moderating the Q and A section, laughs, "I think she wants an answer." Paulsen laughs along and says, "I've learned not to give an answer on the spot."

    Brown Girl Dreaming is the next book they tackle and echo a sentiment from yesterdays conversation with Kwame Alexander and Raul the Third; being an overnight best seller is years of hard work. Woodson set out to write this book to figure out how she became a "not so great student by any means to Jacqueline Woodson." As she wrote she felt as if the book was "so specific to me that I felt it was irrelevant in a way it simply was not." She rewrote the book over 30 times, and with it's success she was surprised with just how many people connected with her work. She laughs as she remembers that some white men had called her and told her of their experience being coached by her grandfather and their love for him and the book. She says she "learned we are part of something bigger." She reads the first poem of her multi-award winner as well, and here one can hear the lyrical quality Paulsen was speaking about. The music of Woodson's words beautifully burst through. Speaking of music, Woodson and Paulson both agree that there is an art in listening. Woodson believes "you can't be a writer if you're not listening- engaging with the world." For Woodson that listening comes with an almost scary accuracy to see precisely where her stories were coming from, she doesn't want to mess with that process too much so she tries not to pinpoint them often.

    The conversation pivots to Woodson's '98 Horn Book essay, "Who Tells My Story" which is as important today as it was when first published. Paulsen believes that "you can write about people you know." Multicultural children's books, as they used to be called, started off with white authors using a "color by numbers" rubric on their books. They would make the best friend of the main character Black and then wonder why kids of color wouldn't read the books. Woodson explains that kids can see right through these types of books. Paulsen agrees and says that her imprint at Penguin is dedicated to books that can be read aloud in classrooms, books that let readers be in "someones else's shoes." She looks for "the kinds of books that win states awards, the ones kids vote on." They both recall the anger of some folks at Each Kindness, specifically its' ending. Woodson laughs, stating "it made them feel some type of way!" She believes it's the loss of a chance to change bad behavior that upset people. She continues, explaining that she was very deliberate writing Maya as a strong character rather than "beaten down." She wanted to pay homage to those kids in the world who felt the same as Maya and center them. 

    

    To close the conversation, Woodson reads her most recent picture book The Day You Begin, and dear reader I'm not afraid to admit I teared up. Once again the musicality of Woodson's words beautifully bursts through and the story is only more lovely. Inspired by her poem "it'll be scary" in Brown Girl Dreaming, it assures readers that there will be folks out there who share your stories. Once in the Q&A section, Woodson was asked what the most rewarding part of writing was. "All of it," was her response. The ever present question of writing for an audience or for yourself was asked. Woodson explained that she writes for herself first and foremost, "I don't think folks should worry about audience too much." She asks herself how she will mold her writing, whether it'll be middle grade, young adult, or otherwise.

She writes responsibly and kindly, making sure that the kids she writes for will be cared for in the worlds she writes. She answers that her writing is always character driven, asking herself "what does a character wants and how will they get there?" Paulsen offers some generative questions that inspire deeper insight into a manuscript; they include "Who're their people?" and "I want to know more."  When Woodson is asked if she has different processes for different genres, she laughs and answers, "Long time ago I would've said yes but now no." She explains that her writing has gotten more poetic across the board citing intentional behind line breaks as an example. For folks eager to know which book she wrote that had taken 4 days, she laughs again and says she misspoke; the shortest one she had written was about two weeks. She smiles, "don't aspire to a 4 day book y'all, it won't be any good!" 

A Conversation with Jane Yolen, Hosted by Heidi E.Y. Stemple

Jane Yolen is the author of over 385 books and at least half of those are picture books. (She’s also written two cookbooks, six graphic novels, well over eighty novels, ten music books, lots of nonfiction, plenty of poetry collections, and has edited anthologies of short stories and poetry.) Along the way her work has garnered a Caldecott, Caldecott Honor, three SCBWI Golden Kite Awards, three Mythopoetic Awards, two World Fantasy Awards, and many state awards. She has been given six honorary doctorates for her body of work from colleges and universities, as well as the Kerlan Award, the De Grummond Medal, Smith College Medal, the Catholic Library Regina Medal, the Jewish Book Award, and an award from the Massachusetts Senate. She was the first writer to win the New England Public Radio’s Arts & Humanities Award, and the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St. Andrews since the series began in 1927. http://janeyolen.com/

Heidi E.Y. Stemple didn’t want to be a writer when she grew up. In fact, after she graduated from college, she became a probation officer in Florida. It wasn’t until she was twenty-eight years old that she gave in and joined the family business, publishing her first short story in a book called Famous Writers and Their Kids Write Spooky Stories. The famous writer was her mom, author Jane Yolen. Since then, she has published about twenty-five books, including Counting Birds, Fly With Me, You Nest Here With Me, Not All Princesses Dress In Pink, and two Fairy Tale Feasts cookbooks, as well as numerous short stories and poems, mostly for children. Her website is www.HeidiEYStemple.com

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Jane and Heidi are in the (virtual) house!

Jane Yolen (top left), Heidi E.Y. Stemple (top right), and interpreter Jennye Kamin (lower)

Jane starts us with a poem (wow!) Here are highlights of the rest:

Heidi's first question: "Why picture books?"

"Because picture books are the closest to poetry as you can get." – Jane Yolen

Picture books are a way, Jane says, that "I'm able to get poetry up. A book that lifts children up, as well."

On process: Jane starts every day with writing a poem. If she "primes the pump" with a poem, she tells us, the rest of the day, her words can flow.

On compression: "Every word has to count. Most words have to move backwards and forwards. They have to resonate throughout the entire book.... Every time you revise, you'll find more words to take out. (Of course, you also sometimes find more words to put in.)"

Jane's tip: Sometimes, if you write a picture book down as if it's a poem... you'll suddenly see all the words that don't belong.

"It's very important to read it out loud. Even more important, have someone else read it out loud to you... The eye and the ear are different listeners."

They discuss three more elements great picture books need:

Lyricism: "a picture book can almost be sung."

Arc: "you need to go from one place to another."

Visuality: "Picture books are meant to be illustrated." Even if you're not an illustrator, "you still have to think visually."

We also get to hear the story behind Jane writing Owl Moon.

They discuss the difference between "the real, the true, and the actual." Jane advises us that sometimes an actual story from life is just an incident. For Owl Moon, she needed an individual child having an emotional experience. It's not a memoir. It's not point for point real, but it is point for point true.

There's so much more discussed, including revision as "re-visioning," the different kinds of books, Jane's productivity secret ("Butt In Chair - BIC."), and the best advice she's received.

Two more inspirational thoughts from Jane to share here...

About the work Jane puts into her picture book manuscripts:

“Sometimes it takes me longer to write a great picture book than a full novel.” 

And about writing in hard times:

“Pick up what is bothering you and turn it into a little piece of beauty.” That’s what writers (picture book writers especially) can do. 

They transition to the Q&A by reading a new picture book they co-wrote, I AM THE STORM, to us. It's beautiful (and beautifully illustrated by Kristen Howdeshell and Kevin Howdeshell.)

Thank you, Jane and Heidi!

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors Panel: Julie Strauss-Gabel

Julie Strauss-Gabel is the president and publisher of Dutton Books for Young Readers.

On acquistions: While Penguin is a big publishing house that does not have an acquisitions board. Acquisitions are editorially directed. Each imprint guides it's own submissions and acquisitions, allowing her to seeing, knowing, acquiring for her list. She follows her tastes and conscience, and to really consider the future of a book.

On hazards of these challenging times (pandemic): Not seeing colleagues every day. Missing casual interactions. It's a reminder of just how human our publishing business is, how much we need each other. It is difficult to do a creative job in isolation. Do your best to keep the lines of communication open best you can.

On falling in love with a manuscript: "I know it when I see it." Because she's spent a long time understanding herself and her tastes, the books she can acquire and edit to success—the manuscripts that would be a good fit for her. It's not necessarily about the best, knowing uniquely for her voice as an editor and the things she's passionate about.

Career advice: Know yourself, know your own work. Know what matters to you, the priorities of your work. To know what you'll fight for and stay true to—and what you're willing to be flexible about. These are all things you'll curate over time.

On the manuscript: Your manuscript has to speak for you. An author can't stand next to a reader and tell them what the words are supposed to say. That book has to do its work for you for a very long time and through many layers of human beings. Success can't be manufactured, it is about people telling other people about books that they love. So, that manuscript need to do it's work for you. Stick to it,  keep it on the page. And no short cuts.

On community: Find good partners along the way to give you good feedback.

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors Panel: Neal Porter

Neal Porter, founder and publisher of Neal Porter Books, with Yuyi Morales, author/illustrator of the award-winning picture book DREAMERS

Neal Porter is VP and publisher of Neal Porter Books, an imprint at Holiday House, and is also the founder of Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan. His books have won a plethora of awards, including the Caldecott Medal, four Caldecott Honors, Geisel Honors, Sibert Honors, the Coretta Scott King Award and Honor for illustration, Pura Belpré Awards, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and in 2015 he himself was awarded an Eric Carle Honor in the category of Mentor.

I had the pleasure of meeting and having more than one conversation with Neal at an SCBWI conference at Asilomar a few years ago, and I made a point of introducing myself and expressing my respect because ye gods, the man is having a CAREER, you know what I’m saying? He’s been in the children’s publishing industry for 43 years, with positions at too many publishing houses to even try to list, and works with some of the most heralded authors and illustrators in the field, including my personal choice for The Best Picture Book Author/Illustrator On the Planet Earth Right Now, Yuyi Morales.

The man himself, Neal Porter.

Neal exclusively publishes picture books - 24 picture books spread across 3 seasons per year, to be exact - and some of the books he’s especially proud of are DREAMERS by Yuyi Morales, NINE MONTHS by Miranda Paul and Jason Chin, HEY WATER! by Antoinette Portis, and A PLACE TO LAND by Barry Wittenstein. In fact, he met Miranda, Antoinette, and Barry at SCBWI events, so, you know, SCBWI has served up a few bottles of that particular flavor of lightning.

Neal’s also done the publishing equivalent of finding a movie star working at the local soda fountain - in his case, the soda fountain being an indie bookstore, and the movie star being future Caldecott medalist Erin Stead - but he mostly hears about new talent from agents. He entertainingly describes the three-person staff of Neal Porter as a “vast empire,” but one which doesn’t accept unsolicited material because, you know, three people. Dude is good with irony.

He was not shy about acknowledging the changes and challenges forced upon the publishing industry by the Covid-19 pandemic. He misses the easy spontaneity of strolling down the hall to chat with colleagues, which is a more formal and ritualized process via Zoom. His list is full through 2022, and looking to 2023 means looking toward a reality we can’t yet predict the shape of. At the end of the day the publishing industry is still a personal, intuitive, and selfish (in the sense of only publishing books he truly loves) one for him, but he second guesses his choices more these days because of pandemic-induced uncertainty.

Neal acknowledges that as a 66 year old white guy, he carries an immense amount of privilege that he sometimes struggles to check at the door, but he finds much inspiration and learning from the examples set by his younger colleagues, and is eager to keep finding new work that prioritizes underrepresented voices, confronts racism, and empowers individuals and communities to rise up. Publishing has proven infinitely adaptable, and he believes a good book will always find its audience, no matter the circumstances.

Lin Oliver, Neal Porter, Arthur Levine, Namrata Tripathi, Julia Strauss-Gabel, Stacey Barney, Jill Santopolo, and Brian Truitt during the #SCBWISummerSpec editor panel.

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors' Panel: Namrata Tripathi

Namrata Tripathi is VP & Publisher of Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House, where she focuses on "centering stories from the margins" and expanding the vision of our narrative landscape, endeavoring to "add nuance and depth to the way children and young adults see the world and their place in it."

Tripathi, whose 20-year career in publishing included stints at Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, Hyperion, and HarperCollins, publishes picture books through young adult, fiction and nonfiction projects--all are welcome at Kokila. Of particular interest are children's book creators who have a singular point of view, who reflect on their sense of self and its manifestation in their stories.  Tripathi shared insights on some of Kokila's early and forthcoming titles:

Tripathi is an "agitator" who appreciates stories with multiple layers, like the seemingly simple My Papi Has A Motorcycle, by Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña, which is about a loving father/daughter ride through the neighborhood on the surface, but also explores themes of gentrification, immigration in U.S. cities, and changing communities. Hair Love, by Matthew Cherry and Vashti Harrison, is also about a loving father/daughter relationship. It includes a celebration of Black hair and Blackness, and it is a vivid portrait of a young Black father just being a nurturing, fun-loving, engaged daddy, a decidedly non-dominant image in today's children's media landscape. "All of our books are creative...but also destructive," Tripathi said about Kokila's work to turn away from harmful narratives that are often considered the "norm". Hair Love went on to become an Oscar-winning short film.

When she sees a need in the world, Tripathi works to bring that vision to life through story. Such was the case with the board book Anti-Racist Baby, by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Ashley Lukashevsky. Personal experiences and dialogue with others about "when to discuss race" with young children prompted the development of the bestseller that belied the idea that there was an age "too young" for those conversations.

There are some books, like Veera Hiranandani's Newbery Honor award-winning The Night Diary, that are an immediate straight-to-the heart. match for Tripathi, the ones "that you know that nobody else can do." Her intimate knowledge of the history that grounded that story, and her understanding of what it means to move within and across borders enriched the process of acquiring and editing the book. Additional and forthcoming titles include Randy Ribay's National Book Award finalist young adult novel Patron Saints of Nothing, Traci Sorrell and Weshoyot Alvitre's At The Mountain's Base, Jessica Kim's Stand Up, Yumi Chung!,  and Keah Brown and Sharee Miller's Sam's Super Seats.

The small, but mighty team at Kokila accepts unagented submissions from September 1-December 1 every year. For more about the imprint, its people, and its vision, visit Kokila online,

on Instagram, and on Twitter.

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors Panel: Arthur A. Levine

After a wonderful conversation with Sir Phillip Pullman on Friday afternoon to start off the Summer Spectacular in the best possible way, Arthur A. Levine is back to take part in the Editors’ Panel: Discovering New Talent and Publishing New Books: The Challenges, The Decisions, The Criteria. Arthur has well over 30 years of experience in children’s book publishing. He first worked his way up to Editor in Chief at Knopf Books for Young Readers, and then founded the imprint Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic, and after 23 years as its President and Publisher, he founded Levine Querido in April 2019, where he is determined to showcase a diverse range of voices, delivering “The Best of the World’s Literature for Young People” to readers.

Arthur is joined on the panel by Namrata Tripathi (VP & Publisher of Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers), Julie Straus-Gabel (President and Publisher of Dutton Books for Young Readers at Penguin Random House), Stacey Barney (Executive Editor at G.P. Putnam’s Books for Young Readers), Neal Porter (Founder Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House), and Jill Santopolo (Editorial Director of Philomel Books, a Penguin Young Readers).  

When thinking about the criteria he uses to find new talent, Arthur speaks of his company’s motto: “Beloved books, beautifully made, giving voice to a world of talent”

                                                   

And “beloved” is a central consideration when thinking about the kind of books Levine Querido is interested in publishing. 

“We are looking for books that not only do we love reading now,” Arthur says, “but that you could imagine being a beloved book . . . One that stands out for a reader in that special shelf of books they treasure forever.” 

He spoke of the concept of books having an essential truth.

“A book having an essential truth—that there’s some essential truth in that book that you carry away with you and it stays with you maybe for the rest of your life.”

A few examples he gave of books his worked on over his career are:

 

Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

Essential truth—Always stick with your buddy

“If you carry that through in the rest of your life, you’ll have something good.”

Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully

Essential truth—Think only of the wire and of crossing to the end

“Truly it’s everything, the project you’re working on. A challenge that you’re facing. If you can break it down, if you can only think of the wire, the path that you’re on and of crossing to the end, you’ll be okay.”

Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) by Daniel Nayeri

Essential truth— Your truth, your deep truth is untouchable

Arthur says you need to grab the book August 25^th to know the full meaning of its essential truth. J

Levine Querido is all about “beloved books, beautiful made,” which also speaks to the fact that their books will have an “exceptional quality” and lasting appeal.  

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors Panel: Jill Santopolo

Jill Santopolo is the VP & associate publisher of Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers. She’s edited many award-winning and bestselling titles, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, Just Ask by Sonia Sotomayor and Rafael Lopez, Superheroes Are Everywhere by Kamala Harris and Mechal Renee Roe, and Girling Up by Mayim Bialik. When she’s not editing books, Jill is a New York Times bestselling author herself. Her adult novel The Light We Lost has hit multiple bestseller lists in the US and abroad and was Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick for February 2018. You can learn more about her at jillsantopolo.com or by following her on instagram or Twitter (@jillsantopolo).

The panel has each editor speaking in turn. A few highlights from what Jill shared:

She thinks about how publishing is at the crossroads of art and commerce. And how "feeling emotion is key to enjoying any kind of art... particularly any kind of art telling a story... like a book."

Expanding on that, she considers what the reader brings to the art, and how "their reaction will determine the success of the book." (If they love it, they'll talk it up. a.k.a. word of mouth. If not, not so much.)

Jill describes the emotions that drive some of the books she's edited, talking about the "Heart of the book."

"The heart of the book is a way the writer's heart and reader's heart reach out to connect." -Jill Santopolo

One example, for She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, the heart of the book is "If anyone tells you your voice doesn't matter, don't listen to them."

The heart of a book can be explicit or implicit, and Jill shares more examples, including discussing the heart of the classic Goodnight, Moon.

She explained,

"Goodnight Moon assures readers with the heart message: everything is as it should be, and it's safe to go to sleep."

This was a profound insight to me - because I've never really "got" why Goodnight Moon has been so successful. But now, I understand it better. And I'm thinking about the "heart message" of what I write, too.

Thanks, Jill!

The panel ended with a Q&A, covering what editors wish authors would know, how illustrators can be discovered to be a debut, if age of the writer/illustrator is a thing editors consider, how important is a social media presence, gatekeeping in the industry, and how translators can help debut author/illustrators be discovered.

All the panelists gather for the Q&A.
Top row, l-r: Namrata Tripathi, Lin Oliver, Jill Santopolo
Middle row, l-r: Stacey Barney, Arthur Levine, Julie Strauss-Gabel
Lower row: Neal Porter, and interpreter Brian Truitt

#SCBWISummerSpec Editors Panel: Stacey Barney

Stacey Barney of G.P. Putnam's Sons kicked off the Editor's Panel at the SCBWI Summer Spectacular by reassuring the publishing community that although she is eager to return to the office, business continues as usual on her end during the pandemic. She quoted Publisher Jennifer Klonsky in reiterating their ongoing mission to "publish books for every reader." She mentioned her experience as an educator prior to becoming an editor, and highlighted books on her list including the award-winning Firebird by Misty Copeland.
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She talked about how the heart of her work lies in the writer-editor relationship, specifically working with a full and trusted list of talent ("repeat offenders"!), emphasizing the push-and-pull of collaboration, and how fun it can be to shape a book together with her authors.

She talked about her criteria in seeking new talent: LOVE. Stacey wants to fall in love with an author's voice and vision, and to see longterm potential in working together, noting that she invests in authors for a career, not just for a debut. 

Although she loves a debut! She said finding new talent "is like the bloom of a new romance."

Stacey also mentioned that although some authors may come to her as best-selling in their genres, if they're new to Children's Publishing, she sees and works with them in the same way as she does with debut talent.

Penguin colleague Julie Strauss-Gabel also noted that Penguin does not a separate acquisitions board, so acquisitions are mostly editor-driven. That effort can be seen and felt in Stacey's passion for seeking authors she wants to collaborate with for a lifetime. 

Q: What's one thing you wish authors did more often?

A: "I wish authors would take more risks with their craft & execution." Stacey mentions that editors read a lot of submissions, and seek a fresh voice and style that jumps out at her – which is the magic that happened when she read the manuscript for Ziggy Stardust and Me by James Brandon.

When asked about authors seeking to begin their publishing career over the age of 50, Stacey mentioned that she won't look at the submission letter first. She emphasizes it's about the words on the page, not the age of the author. If she gets about 25 pages into the submission itself and begins to get curious about the author's identity, "that's when you know you have me!"

Sidenote: Last night at the Illustrator's Social on Twitter, we established a tea club #SCBWITea, so here that is referenced in my drawing! All tea lovers welcome. Despite the virtual format for this conference, we're still finding ways of connecting and building community!

A Buzzy Post: the Editors Panel is About to Begin!

Imagine we're all assembling in a virtual room that holds 4,800 members of this community - and you're right there, with a front-row seat.

Wave hello to your neighbors.

*me waving hi to you*

Settle in.

Get ready to take some notes, do some sketches, be activated.

This should be great!

A Conversation with LeUyen Pham and Dan Santat, #SCBWISummerSpec

On Saturday, LeUyen and Santat were slated to deliver a conversation on the craft and process of storytelling. What conference goers received was more of an overall career master class, which included discussions on character design, layout, pacing, writing tips, and more. Each creator shared a peek inside of their work spaces, before cutting through all the BS and getting straight to the important stuff.

By the end of their conversation, I felt energized and inspired—and also downright lazy. LeUyen and Santat are the epitome of prolific, juggling up to seven different picture book projects at any given time. They also balance marriages and families and dinner and . . . tennis lessons! Turns out, I've been doing it all wrong all along. The answer to real success is: freakin' no sleep!

Okay, here are a few bullet points to recap their discussion:

LeUyen Pham on character design

When beginning a new book, Pham first designs the characters. The look of the characters will

Character designs by LeUyen Pham

determine the look of the book. Her styles are versatile, as she challenges herself (torture herself) to use a different look for each project. It's a way of keeping her work fresh and relevant.

Don't be afraid to start over again and again. It's okay to mess things up. Always give yourself space to change. Pham creates her initial sketches on an iPad using Procreate, throwing shapes on paper to see where they lead her. Shapes become forms, and then personality follows. Working digitally allows her to quickly create sketches while feeling free to ditch them. Working on paper feels too precious, not as easy to let go. She advises to always give yourself space to change.

Understand the principles of design, it is the most important concept to grasp with bookmaking.

Character design is all about silhouette, shape. How does a character read by it's basic shape. Are the character's shapes different one from another?

Use composition to move the audience's eye through the page. That movement needs to carry through each page of the book, like one long line drawn from the title page through the end.

Keep pages evenly weighted--balance.

Dan Santat

First of all, Dan wanted to be sure that everyone congratulates Pham on her Caldecott win this year! Yay! Congrats LeUyen Pham!

Juggling four, five, six books is no big deal for this guy. Time management is the key, though. Each project is broken down into deadlines. And each day, he gives himself several bitesize things to be completed in a day. Santat also finds it necessary to separates tasks within a particular mindset. He might paint all day. Or, he might sketch all day. Whatever he chooses to do that day, he does the easiest task first. It's like a warmup exercise.

Rest! Santat has learned to rest! After years of averaging 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night, he realized the value of rest, and a focus on his overall health. "My whole life can't be about art."

Big part of success is in curating taste--understand why something is good, or bad. For that reason, he reads his book reviews in order to understand others thinking. "You don't want to be in a place where you are stuck in your own beliefs and not open to hearing the ideas of others."


The most important thing about making a book is the concept. Take the time necessary to think of a concept that you can say it in one sentence. If the concept works, if the idea is there, everything else will fall into place.

Keep an idea notebook for journaling ideas as a way of hunting for that concept. Nothing fancy, even garbled, jumbled, thoughts. And don't be precious with those thoughts. Free yourself to say anything, no matter how ridiculous.

Preparing for Luck: A Conversation with Kwame Alexander and Raúl the Third

Saturday’s conversation with Newbery medalist Kwame Alexander and award-winning author/illustrator Raúl The Third was all about being prepared for luck. They opened talking about the panel where they first met. A panel that would become an important mile marker in both of their careers—School Library Journal’s Day of Dialogue, which featured a number of other talented creatives, including Jacqueline Woodson the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.  

They each spoke about how that panel was a pivotal moment. “We were all, with the exception of Jackie, . . . trying to find our way in the industry,” Kwame remembers. Raúl the Third echoed Kwame’s recollections. “It was so incredibly inspiring. I felt like I had just made it.” And for both of them these words couldn’t be truer. Kwame’s Newbery Award winning middle grade novel, The Crossover had just come out after 22 rejections over five years. He had already self-published 14 other books. And for Raúl the Third, it had been decades of people turning down his art before he and collaborator, author Cathy Camper sold their groundbreaking graphic novel Lowriders in Space. 

During those early years, they each realized they needed to be open to possibilities in order to make their own work stronger. Kwame quoted Henry David Thoreau saying, “How vain is it to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” So, living, and experiencing, and being ready to say yes was a constant in both of their creative lives.  

“If you’re going to be a writer,” Kwame says. “If you’re going to be in this world as a creative force, you have to be living a life that’s worth writing about. If you’re going to say something that matters, something significant, if you’re going to write something that is hopefully going to make us, your reader feel something, especially kids, . . . we have to be saying something, and saying it in a really beautiful way. I call it “intelligent entertainment”. So, I spent a great deal of my creative life just living. Just being in the world. Being a willing participant in the world. So, when I began to sort of become a writer in my own I sort of brought that part of my existence into the writing world.”

Raúl the Third agreed. At first, after going to numerous comic convention since he was in his teens, to show his portfolio, always hoping editors and publishers would “save him” or hire him so he could leave home and become a famous artist, he never realized how many other possibilities and opportunities were out in the world for him. But after years of rejection, and a move, and no one wanting to hire him as a comic book artist, he realized if he said yes to things, he would have all these different abilities that would serve his art in the future. 

“All of those different opportunities that opened up because of positive thinking,” Raúl admits, “really inform a lot of the work I make now for our kids.” 

Kwame added, “When we are starting out and are trying to build up . . . our legacy, there is a lot of work that goes into that. There’s a lot of . . . saying yes. There’s a lot of stuff. You have no idea what impact it may have down the road . . . but you’ve got to put yourself in situations to be able to get lucky.”

It was a perfect reminder to all of us to continue to do the work, continue to practice our craft, to continue to live and experience, and continue to remember the possibilities that may be apart of every yes!

#SCBWISummerSpec: Judy Blume in conversation with Lin Oliver

Judy Blume and Lin Oliver kicked off Saturday with a wide-ranging and honest conversation about the joys and challenges of storytelling, and the importance of keeping it real.  Some highlights from their delightful conversation follow below.

Blume sometimes wishes she'd had a children's lit community like SCBWI. She started out as a young mother and wife, though "I never considered myself a housewife." The "inciting incident" that prompted her writing career? Blume says she was just "desperate for a creative outlet", so she wrote. She started out with a "terrible" rhyming picture book called "You, Mom, You" -- that she also tried to illustrate. While You, Mom, You didn't exactly work out, Judy Blume, children's author, was on her way and did not look back. She joined a writing class at NYU, where she was fortunate to have a supportive teacher, and read and read. Books like Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by. E.L. Konigsberg inspired her to write novels. Blume went through two years of rejections before her first book, Iggy's House, was sold. "Determination is as important as talent," said Blume. During that period of rejection, "I was always writing." She sat at the kitchen table, wrote, submitted, got rejections, cried, and wrote some more.

Blume, who says her editor Dick Jackson would tell her "You know more than you're showing me," in first drafts, pointed out that she never starts actually writing "until it's been percolating for a long time...months to years, even." She lets her stories simmer. She's a big believer in notebooks. "I never approach writing a book without a notebook." Each of her books has a notebook, where she jots down everything about character, setting, dialogue, any and everything that comes to mind. She tells young people that the writing process is a bit like creating and putting together a jigsaw puzzle -- making the pieces, painting and colouring them, putting them together. "My mind is messy...it's cluttered," she added. While she occassionally does some planning and light outlining (for books like Blubber and the later Fudge stories, for example), she loves being surprised by the writing process. When Oliver asked if she had an inner critic, Blume answered: "Do you know any writer who isn't incredibly insecure?" She reflected on her early career where she was less self-conscious "because I didn't know anything" and more recent times, when "I can write my own bad reviews." Inner critic or no, Blume is adamant that they can't be around during the writing process. "You have to write without fear," she said. That fearlessness and authenticity are a hallmark of Blume's storytelling. "You have such an incredible honesty," said Oliver. Blume said that she told herself early on to be honest. As a child, she'd hated when adults kept secrets from children, and vowed to tell the truth in her stories. To write with emotional honest, "you have to dig...put yourself inside" your memories, and engage all of your senses as you do. "When you write for kids...you have to really be on their side."

"When you write for kids...you have to really be on their side."

Blume, now a bookstore owner (Books and Books in Key West, FL), encourages all writers to "read, read, read, and read" to learn and be inspired. She acknowledged that while she has often been able to use humor to write about difficult topics, the pain and unrest of the current moment can make it hard to be inspired. "I have always been able to write through the worst times," but Judy Blume has struggled to create over the last few months. Oliver added that sometimes writers have to "forgive ourselves" and other times "discipline ourselves." When writing about challenging or "uncomfortable" topics, Blume advises not to start with the issue, but with "character, approach it from inside of your character." Blume, whose books, like Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, have been challenged and seen as "controversial" by some, added that writers have to knock both the critic and the censor from their shoulders. Reading, she points out, "helps us get to know one another." Writers should primarily "tell the best story you can tell...and it's going to work sometimes." Blume feels fortunate that she entered. the business in ignorance, and advises writers not to think, but "just go for it, write...get into your own story, your own characters," to "get into the zone." Oliver agreed that that type of losing self-consciousness and inhabiting the story is key to success, and the enduring success of Judy Blume's body of work is certainly a testament to that.