Congratulations to our own Cynthia Leitich Smith on the publication of Firefly Season, illustrated by Kate Gardiner (Heartdrum, May 13, 2025)! From the publisher’s website:
Written by the award-winning, bestselling author of Jingle Dancer, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee), and filled with tender illustrations by Kate Gardiner (Nipmuck), this unforgettable, warmhearted picture book is for family and the friends who become family.
Piper feels grateful for visits with her relatives, especially for the time spent with her cousins in Cherokee Nation and Muscogee Nation during summer vacations, fishing on misty mornings and playing on firefly-filled evenings. Piper’s family lives a road trip away in Kansas City. So when a neighbor named Sumi moves in next door, Piper is excited to share her stories and seasons with a new friend.
The two are inseparable—until Piper’s family moves to another city. Their bond overcomes distance, and with time, Piper dreams up a plan to reunite with the people she loves most of all.
Firefly Season comes 25 years after the publication of Cynthia’s first picture book, Jingle Dancer, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (HarperCollins, 2000)(Heartdrum, 2021). I asked Cynthia to reflect on her career and creativity.
What keeps your creative spark alive through the seasons of a long career?
I’d say it’s more of a creative smolder than a spark, which may sound less exciting, but it’s much deeper, much longer lasting, and more sustaining.
During my pre-and-early publication apprenticeship, the goal of a manuscript wasn’t necessarily the idea that it could someday fuel a book but rather that it was a laboratory of sorts. I focused on transferrable-skill building and gaining practice at generating viable ideas for various age-market readerships. So, I might try a story in, say, first person versus limited third or revising from the point of view of a minor character or aging up a story from a middle grade to young adult.
Back then, a key question for me was whether I could successfully execute the required writing and how to go about that. Meanwhile, I took writing classes, studied model and mentor books, participated in critique groups, and sought professional feedback. Back then, it was understood that the journey to publication could be a decade long or more.
So, my mindset was that if I managed to create a story ready for serious acquisitions consideration, that was a hard-earned miracle. Meanwhile, the creative sparks were flying.
Today, the incubation period for my stories is much longer. I put deep thought into what I can add to the conversation of books.
Not to overstate it—I’m still working hard to stretch and grow and give myself artistic challenges (like writing in a fairytale omniscient voice for Sisters of the Neversea or creating engaging talking-animal characters for On a Wing And A Tear), but I’ve gained an understanding that the life of a book can span generations and an appreciation for how profoundly stories can impact young readers. We have a responsibility to our audience, and I’m committed to offering them not only my best efforts at a given time but also a shared literary experience—whether joyful, reflective, or both—that is created with love and respect.
How do you nurture your voice while continuing to grow craft-wise?
Self-nurturing is a challenge. I joked recently that I’m not living my life—my life is living me.
I tend to view my career as the work of three partners: Writer Cyn, Author Cyn, and Mentor/Teacher Cyn. (Obviously, my efforts as Heartdrum author-curator fall mostly under that last category.)
Ironically, given that creativity is foundational, Writer Cyn is the most likely of the three to step aside. So, I pull from insights and experiences gained from the other two, such as teaching, which is arguably the best way to learn, as well as listening to feedback from young readers and their grownups, especially teachers, librarians, and booksellers.
Meanwhile, I study the books of my Indigenous author peers, and I put a lot of thought into how we can honor our own literary traditions and values on the page and off.
That said, perhaps the most powerful thing that I do for my voice is give myself permission to push against mainstream expectations and boundaries. My writing challenges stereotypical preconceptions, reflects southeastern Native and intertribal life ways, and it does so not only in terms of content and values but also in terms of humor, literary style and structure.
My writing centers the needs and sensibilities of Native young readers, especially those tribally reflected, while inviting all kids or teens into the storytelling circle.
We’re also taking a look back to a 2002 post when Cynthia was interviewed by author Jane Kurtz. Jane’s newest book, Oh, Give me a Home publishes July 8, 2025 from Catalyst Press.
Jane: It’s pretty unusual for a person’s first three published books to be three different age-market categories: picture book, upper middle grade novel, chapter book. Do you have any thoughts on what it takes for a writer to be that versatile? [Note: Since the time of this interview, Cynthia has also published in poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, standard middle grade, and the young adult novel.]
Writing for diverse genres isn’t so much up to the author as the characters who speak to her. If I could control those voices, I would ask them to wait patiently in neat lines. Fortunately, I don’t have that kind of control.
But it is a challenge to write for different age groups. I spend a lot of time studying work by other children’s authors and by Native authors (for both children and adults), as well as children’s and Native poets for these same audiences. This gives me a feel for how I can reach out to young readers at a certain point in their lives while, to the extent possible, honoring Native literary traditions. I also seek the advice of other authors. One of the greatest things about being an author of the Internet generation is how accessible we are to each other. This brings with it many opportunities for personal and professional support.
The magic, though, comes from a more emotional, internal exercise. When I begin writing a protagonist at a given age group, I gently talk myself back to that time. Remember nine, I’ll say to myself. Remember how scary it was to be in a new school, how you felt when someone made fun of your clothes, how comforting it was to spend time with your grandparents, how much fun you had singing with your mom to tunes on the the car radio, how you would spend hours reading beneath the canopy of your new bed…
When I reach that place that’s nine (or four or fourteen), I’ll turn to my protagonist and ask, “How are you?” Then, if everything clicks just right–and it doesn’t always, they’ll begin to answer, and it’s as though someone else is living in my head.
Jane: You’ve had terrific illustrators. The pictures for Jingle Dancer are so strong, and your covers are unusually vivid and appealing. Just luck…or did you have any input?
I’m extremely fortunate to be working with Rosemary Brosnan, an editor who considers my feedback on illustrations as related to cultural expertise. I’ve had the opportunity to preview the illustrations before publication, and in the case of Rain Is Not My Indian Name, I made suggestions about the cover that were included in the final art.
In addition, each of the illustrators who’ve worked on my books have produced carefully crafted work. With Jingle Dancer, Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu did a magnificent job of creating watercolor paintings that convey the love and respect between Jenna and the women in her life. Their art reinforces the story.
Jane: I wrote an article for School Library Journal on the challenges of accuracy when it comes to illustrations in multicultural picture books. Did this issue come up for you at all with Jingle Dancer?
It did in a positive way. When Neil Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu first began researching the illustrations, I sent them a large box of tribal newspapers, video from a southern Oklahoma powwow, family photos, anything that might help. They used those materials in beginning to sketch. They also attended a powwow in New York, hence the importance of my offering the video (not all powwows are alike), and agreed to let me review the illustrations.
I spotted a couple concerning areas. One was the inclusion of a very generically southwestern looking “Indian-style” pot in Grandma Wolfe’s house. Now, I will grant that it’s plausible that Grandma could’ve jumped into car, sped off to the Dillard’s at the Muskogee mall, and decided it was the pot for her. However, in children’s literature, proper attention to the specificity of Native cultures is key.
When young readers from an under-represented community, like Native Americans, read books supposedly about their people that don’t ring true, it sends the message that books aren’t for them. It was important that young Native readers see themselves in Jenna’s story without being distracted or distraught by inaccuracies. It was also important that other young readers not get the idea that “Indian identity” is somehow fungible.
So, we gladly replaced that pot with a Muscogee Creek-style basket, and Jingle Dancer is a stronger book for it. The art team, who had previously created only books reflecting their own diverse backgrounds, brought with them not only incredible talent as artists but also an important sensitivity that is absolutely essential in cross-cultural work. (full post available here)
And, we’re also looking back at an essay post Cynthia wrote in 2004 about Jingle Dancer that we hope will offer encouragement for those facing the unpredictability of children’s publishing.
I revised the manuscript, then tentatively titled “Jenna, Jingle Dancer, a total of 83 times–I still used to bother to count back then….
Up until “Jenna, Jingle Dancer,” I’d had a standard system for handling submissions. I sent the manuscript to an editor. The editor’s assistant sent me a form rejection. I filed the form rejection in a big, white three-ring binder. I sent the manuscript to someone else. Sometimes I revised first.
Occasionally, I got a scribbled note saying something like–“very promising” or “send more work.” I gloried in and celebrated those. A Houghton Mifflin editor named Margaret Raymo was the first editor to write something encouraging on one of my decline letters. I continued writing by the glow of her words for months.
Following this course, I’d submitted “Jenna, Jingle Dancer” to Rosemary Brosnan, who was then the head editor at Lodestar. She’d been interested in another picture book manuscript of mine, “Something Bigger” (a fishing story about a boy and his grandfather that years later was rewritten to become the last short story in Indian Shoes).
I also submitted it for critique at a couple of SCBWI regional conferences–one in Houston and one in Brazos Valley. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the Houston conference and found out that Simon & Schuster editor Kevin Lewis thought my manuscript was wonderful–“just the kind of thing we should be doing with multicultural books,” he said and hugged me. (Keep in mind, at this point in my life, editors were not people who hugged me. They were mysterious, all-powerful, and a bit scary. This has changed for the better).
Then, at the Brazos Valley conference, editor Liz Bicknell (now of Candlewick Press) had quite flattering things to say as well. Right about the same time, I signed with my agent, and in the end, the manuscript sold to Rosemary at Lodestar, where it had particularly caught the attention of her then editorial assistant, named “Jenna.”
For a short while, all was well. My friends fussed over me and sent flowers. I skipped through the streets of Chicago. But then Lodestar was downsized in one of those many publishing buyouts that were so frequent at the time. Rosemary accepted another job at Morrow Junior shortly after, but then–eek!–Morrow was bought by Harper and downsized, though they kept some of the contracts, including mine, and some of the editors, including Rosemary. Woo woo! We were in business.
But in sum, Jingle Dancer is a book that was originally sold to one company, produced at a second, and distributed by a third. That’s a volatile industry! (full post available here)
Cynsations Notes
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author and anthologist of more than 20 books for young readers. She was named a 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Candidate, the NSK Neustadt Laureate, Texas Literary Hall of Fame inductee, and winner of the Southern Miss Medallion for Outstanding Contributions in Children’s Literature. Cynthia has been named to deliver the 2026 ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and served as the Katherine Paterson Inaugural Chair for the children’s-YA writing MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Texas.
Award-winning author Jane Kurtz has published more than 40 books—fiction and nonfiction, picture books and novels. She grew up mostly in Ethiopia where she now does a lot of volunteer work for helping kids get books. She also is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Children’s and YA Literature where she works with adults who want to become professional writers.
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently a student in the Library Science Master’s program at the University of North Texas. She also has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She is a member of Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She teaches creative writing workshops and is a bookseller at Paper Bark Birch Books in Cedar Park, Texas. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.