I’m thrilled to introduce two debut authors to the Cynsations audience today. I met both at Vermont College of Fine Arts several years ago while we were all working on MFAs in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Both write middle grade, but their books are very different, illustrating the depth and diversity that exists in children’s literature.
Continue Reading New Voices: Meredith Davis & Nicole Valentine On Being An Author »
Charlotte Nicole Davis is the debut author of The Good Luck Girls (Tor Teen, Oct. 1, 2019).
How would you describe your writing apprenticeship and transition to an actively publishing author? What were the surprises, challenges and strategies that have defined your experience along the way?
By Gail Vannelli
Long ago, a four-wheeler that started to swirl hit a car with a mother and four-year-old girl. And that girl, in a hospital, smelly and white, lay confused and alone, with her leg wrapped up tight in a cast in a sling pulled up high in the air, where it linked to all kinds of weird gadgets up there.
Continue Reading Cynsations Intern: Gail Vannelli on Loving Literature »
I’m excited to share Jacqueline Lipton‘s journey from lawyer to children’s writer to lliterary agent.
How and why did you become an agent?
I’ve been interested in agenting for a long time, after someone suggested it to me many years ago as a way to merge my interests in law and business with my interests in writing and publishing.
September is yoga month!
So as a former preschool teacher I was thrilled to interview Nora Carpenter about her fantastic new picture book Yoga Frog, illustrated by Mark Chambers (Running Press Kids, 2018). From the promotional copy:
Frog loves to practice yoga.
Stephani Eaton, photo by Tanya Odom
When I was in second grade, I wrote a poem about an impending storm that pleased my dad so much that he hung it in his office. It stayed there for years.
I recently asked if he remembered what it said and he rattled off: “This dark and rainy noon will soon pass the sunset of time.”
I had to laugh at the melodrama of my seven-year-old self.
Continue Reading Cynsations Intern: Stephani Eaton on The Joy of Writing »
By Robin Galbraith
for Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s Cynsations
Adrienne Kisner is a Vermont College of Fine Arts alum and a hilarious fellow classmate, so I jumped at the chance to interview her about her funny and heart-wrenching debut YA novel, Dear Rachel Maddow (Feiwel &
Continue Reading New Voice: Adrienne Kisner on Dear Rachel Maddow »
Jessie Janowitz is the debut author of The Doughnut Fix (Sourcebooks, April 2018). From the promotional copy:
Tristan isn’t Gifted or Talented like his sister Jeanine, and he’s always been okay with that because he can make a perfect chocolate chip cookie and he lives in the greatest city in the world.
Continue Reading New Voice: Jessie Janowitz on Finding a Literary Agent & The Doughnut Fix »
I’ve been thinking a lot about page turns in picture books recently, and all of the amazing things they can do, including:
Show the passage of time
Using page turns to show the passage of time is probably the usage that everybody is familiar with.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Agent-Author Tracy Marchini on Page Turns in Picture Books »
Lean more about Cartoonist and Teacher Gene Luen Yang.
Welcome to Cynsations. We last spoke to Dean Mary Francoise Rockcastle about the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults back in 2006.
When did you join the faculty? What appealed to you about teaching in a low-residency program?
