Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Remembering Maya Angelou from NBC News. Peek: “The renowned poet, author and civil rights activist with the unmistakably regal voice died on May 28 at the age of 86.”
Wishing You “Amazing Peace,” Maya Angelou by Sylvia Vardell from Poetry for Children.
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Fight for Desegregation by Julie Danielson from Kirkus Reviews. Note: Focusing on Duncan Tonatiuh’s Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation (Abrams, 2014). Peek: “My artwork is very much inspired by Pre-Columbian art, especially by Mixtec codices from the 14th century.
By Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand & Emma Trevayne
The Cabinet of Curiosities began in January 2013 as a spooky-stories website devised by Emma Trevayne, who invited Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, and Claire Legrand to join her.
Authors Chris Barton & Jennifer Ziegler; photo by Sam Bond Photography
I keep getting asked: “What is it like, living with another writer?”
Chris Barton, the love of my life, who lives with me in a not-quite-big-enough house in Austin,
By Gail Giles
Okay, so I’m going to try to write a book that fully explores the life of a special needs girl, two of them in fact. And I’m going to do in in alternating voices—in first person.
How do I get in the heads of people that I am not?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Gail Giles on Writing Across Mental Abilities »
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluck, illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis (Inhabit Media): a recommendation by Debbie Reese from American Indians in Children’s Literature. Peek: “Kalluk’s words and Neonakis’s art work beautifully together as we learn Inuit values in which people and animals coexist as caretakers of the land.”
Subway Love (Candlewick, 2014) is my tenth novel for young readers, my third YA, but it is my very first true magical realism.
It is also my first New York City setting. I was born in New York City, in Brooklyn, and although we moved when I was seven,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Nora Raleigh Baskin on Magical Realism, Setting & Subway Love »
Salima at Bethany Hegedus’s Writing Barn
We’re a lucky community here in Austin to have fantastic, established local authors offering private mentorships.
When it first dawned on me that my unwieldy story was beyond the help of the wonderful critique group I’d had for years, I talked to others who had mentored with local author Bethany Hegedus.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Salima Alikhan on Private Writing Study with an Author-Teacher-Mentor »
By Mysterious Anonymous Interviewer
An anonymous interviewer sat down this week with Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell to ask some “unusual” questions…
Is Poetry Month a good idea? I mean, by the end of April, aren’t a lot of people sick of poetry?
JW: For many people, having something—anything—every day for a month is too much.
Check out these videos in celebration of Help! We Need a Title! by Hervé Tullet (Candlewick, 2014). From the promotional copy:
Take a peek inside this book and you’ll find some characters (though they’re still a bit sketchy). They’ll be perplexed to see you, so they’ll quickly try to track down their author (who has a lot more work to do).
Continue Reading Videos: Help! We Need a Title! by Hervé Tullet »
