Showing posts with label speaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speaker. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2016

#SpringMingle - Agent Adriana Dominguez - #SBreeze17

Come Soar with Andriana Dominguez


Ready for your query to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our awesome agents!

Adriana Domínguez is much more than an agent at Full Circle Literary. She has 20 years of experience in publishing!

Prior to becoming an agent, she was Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Before that, she was Children’s Reviews Editor at Críticas magazine, published by Library Journal. She’s also done editorial work for both children and adult publishers and she’s a professional translator, a member of the Brooklyn Literary Council that organizes the Brooklyn Book Festival, and one of the founders of the Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference in New York City.

Whew! All that experience makes Dominguez one of our awesome agents! She represents children’s books for all ages, and select adult fiction and nonfiction. She has a long trajectory of publishing underrepresented authors and illustrators, and welcomes submissions that offer diverse points of view. Books that she has edited or represented have been awarded the Pura Belpré Medal, the Coretta Scott King Honor and the MPIBA’s Reading the West Award among others, and been finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the NAACP Award.

Her session on Saturday is “The Query Quandary: Acquiring an Agent.” But if you want to know more about this quandary, you’ll just have to join us in Decatur, March 10th-12th at Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.


~See you in March~

Thursday, December 22, 2016

#SpringMingle - Tackling the Tough Topics with Michael Joosten - #SBreeze17

Tackling the Tough Topics with Michael Joosten


Want your illustrating to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our super artsy speakers!

Michael Joosten has been working in children's publishing for a decade, having started his career in the Cross Channel division of Scholastic Books. Now, he’s at Random House Children's Books where he works as an editor on such classic properties as Dr. Seuss, Little Golden Books, The Berenstain Bears, Richard Scarry, and Little Critter.

In addition, Michael also works on original picture books. And so he knows a lot about covers, so you’ll want to hear his Illustrator's Day session, “Lovers of Covers: All You Need to Know About Creating a Memorable Book Cover.”

He’ll also be presenting a Saturday session, “Well This is Awkward: Tackling Tricky Topics in Picture Books.” Having recently acquired picture books about the Gay Pride Flag and the Stonewall Riot, Joosten will discuss how you can tackle tricky topics in your work.

That’s a session you won’t want to miss! So join us in Decatur, March 10th-12th at Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.


~See you in March~

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

#SpringMingle - Look, Illustrators, It's Jim Hoover! - #SBreeze17

Look, Illustrators. It's Jim Hoover!


Want your illustrating to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our super artsy speakers!

Jim Hoover is an Associate Art Director at Viking Children’s Books, and he’s been publishing books for over fifteen years. He’s designed and directed the art behind hundreds of picture books and he’s illustrated for DreamWorks as well as for many novel jackets and interior art. Now, he’s coming to Springmingle for Illustrator’s Day!

Visual Story Telling in Two Spreads 

Great picture books are a harmonious marriage of words and picture. A story’s magic happens when these two components work in tandem. For this assignment, please pick a text to work up two spreads for. The story can be something you are actively working on, or an idea you have been hoping to get the time to draft into a more fleshed out story. Or you can do two spreads from a classic story or fairytale you’ve always loved. The spreads don’t need to be consecutive, but think about how to best present this portion of your picture book to your audience—which in this case, is an art director. At the end of the assignment, you will have two pieces for your portfolio which means that your audience will also be editors and agents. How can you hook your audience with two spreads from a picture book?

Sketches will be submitted to Jim via email and are due no later than February 10. Jim will then give you feed back via email for you to incorporate into your final pieces of art—which will be discussed as a group in person the day of the session.

Please note: There is limited enrollment and an additional fee for those participating in the Illustration Project. The preliminary and final work will be presented and discussed at Illustrator’s Day.

Hoover will also present two sessions on Saturday, including “Marrying Text and Pictures to Tell a Great Story” and “All About the Cover!” For his cover session, he’d like you to do a picture book cover, especially if you attend on Friday (two spreads AND a cover! You are practically there!) You can bring a few thumbnails and discuss—if you want feedback on direction, or a final piece of finished art. If you bring a finished piece of art, please do bring a few thumbnails as well—it’s like math—he wants to see your process. Show the work!

A ton of feedback for our illustrators from Jim Hoover! But you can’t get it unless you join us in Decatur, March 10th-12th at Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.


~See you in March~

Monday, December 19, 2016

#SpringMingle - Jacquelyn Mitchard and the YA Connection - #SBreeze17

Come Soar with Jacquelyn Mitchard

Want your writing to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our super speakers! Next up, Jacquelyn Mitchard, the number one New York Times best-selling author of novels for adults, including The Deep End of the Ocean, the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club.

Did you know that Mitchard is also the editor of a realistic Young Adult imprint, Merit Press, and the author of seven novels for Young Adults? Her work has won the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards, as well as the UK’s Walkabout Prize. And when she’s not writing, she’s teaching Creative Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

We’re lucky to have her for our Friday Intensive, “A Whole Day of Beginnings and Endings,” where writers will consider the elements that go into a great ending, and how those elements are so much more than tying up the loose ends.

She’ll have a breakout session, too, called “Why YA? (And How)” on what does and does not comprise YA writing, and why those elements and traditions are so important. But you’ll never know if you don’t join us in Decatur, March 10th-12th at Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!


REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.


~See you in March~

Sunday, December 18, 2016

#SpringMingle - Soar with Patricia MacLachlan! - #SBreeze17

Soar with Patricia MacLahlan!

Want your writing to soar? Then fly to sign up for Springmingle and catch a session with one of our super speakers! Like Patricia MacLachlan!

You know Patricia Maclachlan. She’s the author of the Newbery Medal book, Sarah, Plain and Tall. But isn’t it time you learned more about her other novels? And how she manages to write so much, from picture books to poetry! Check out her newest picture books, The Iridescence of Birds, Someone Like Me, and The Moon’s Almost Here, as well as her soon-to-be-released Barkus.

She lives on a hilltop in Western Massachusetts but she’s going to come here to deliver the keynote at Springmingle. And she’ll also have a breakout session on “Writing to Find Out Who You Are.”

If she can come all the way to Georgia, then you can surely come to Decatur, March 10th-12th for Springmingle, the only conference in Southern Breeze for 2017!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click  :::HERE::: to log in and register.


~See you in March~

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Formal Critiques!

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Formal Critiques! 

People in this industry tend to be very nice, and that can make it difficult to remember that publishing is a "bunny-eat-bunny" world. As difficult as it might be, however, it is important to learn what we need to know if you really want to get published.

Has your manuscript been critiqued by your critique group, is your prose polished and honed, your plot peeled away and re-layered, is it is as good as it can get? How can you be sure?

When writers submit work to an editor or an agent, their submissions land on an editor or agent's desk, or in their email inbox, and are read in batches. The submission must stand on their own, no author sitting there to add anything or answer any questions. Even worse, in today's publishing world, when a submission is rejected, typically there is no feedback - often not even a polite "Thank you, but we are not interested."

Registering for a written only critique not only guarantees that your work will be critiqued by an acquiring editor or agent, it simulates the real world process but also allows you an opportunity to receive valuable feedback and learn what you might do to make it even stronger before you send it out again. It focuses exclusively on what is on the page, which is what happens in the real world of children's publishing.


Sometimes face-to-face critiques may be a better choice, for example, if you have a specific question to ask about plot and character choices. That is what I did at my last face-to-face critique: how old should my main character be, given the nature of the story and the things she would be doing?

What is really great is that you don't have to choose - you can register for both face-to-face and written only critiques!


REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK Get INTENSE!


Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
Get INTENSE! 

This year, WiK16 will host two intensives on Friday, October 7, 2016


Writers’ Intensive with Bruce Coville 
The Light Fantastic
The session will begin with an “annotated storytelling” of the first two chapters of The Monster’s Ring, examining in detail the tricks and techniques being used. Then we’ll examine ten specific tips for writing compelling fantasies. Audience: For editors, librarians, teachers, parents, and children, the hook is what pulls us in, what keeps us reading, and what remains with us after the last page is turned. This intensive will explore the hook of the book from many angles, and you will leave with ideas on how to improve your art.




Illustrators’ Intensive with Don Tate
Drawing on Diversity & Style to Create Authentic Characters 
The call for more diversity in children’s literature is not new. However groups like We Need Diverse Books and The Brown Bookshelf have helped to bring more attention to the issue. How do illustrators answer that call? And how can you create authentic characters of color who are outside of your own experience. It’s more than creating white characters in brown face. In session, we will discuss, investigate, draw and develop multi-dimensional characters that will ring true in today’s world. We’ll also work on developing a marketable style. But what is a marketable style/technique? How do illustrators discover and achieve this in their career? Don will conduct a drawing session that includes drawing like other illustrators and attendees will stretch and reach toward new strengths. He’ll also demystify the process of creating a winning picture book dummy. Planning through thumbnail sketches. Rising and falling action. Driving your reader through your story by the use of dynamic page turns, color, and composition. Audience: Illustrators, all levels.


REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Jodi Wheeler-Toppen 


Jodi Wheeler-Toppen is a science author and educator with 10+ books for children and teachers from National Geographic Kids, Capstone, and NSTA Press. She is a former high school science teacher, with a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Georgia. She loves having adventures with kids—her own and any others who come her way. Find her at www.OnceUponAScienceBook.com or on Facebook @JodiWheelerToppen.

WORKSHOP

  • Getting your Books (and you!) into Schools How do teachers decide which books to use with their classes? What makes a teachers’ guide for a book really useful for a teacher? How do you get a teacher’s guide noticed so that teachers will try it out? In this session, we’ll hear from teacher interviews on how they select books. We’ll look at some lesson plans that teachers love and figure out why they work. We’ll look at some publications coming out of educator’s groups that can help us highlight our work for teachers, and help them see how valuable our author visits can be. And it will be fun! Audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Lisa Lewis Tyre

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Lisa Lewis Tyre 


Lisa Lewis Tyre is the middle grade author of Last In A Long Line of Rebels, (Nancy Paulsen Books) a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, a founder of the multi-author blog, Middle Grade Mafia, and a social media evangelist! She is currently working on her second novel, Eight Day Daughter, releasing 2017.

WORKSHOP

  • It’s a Tweet Life! Twitter 101 When it comes to getting published, writers should use every tool available. It’s now possible to get noticed, find an agent, even get published because of Twitter! This class is designed to teach you the basics - how to use Twitter, how hashtags work and which ones to use, participating in twitter contests, building your platform, connecting with influencers, etc. Audience: Writers and illustrators, beginner.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Friday, August 12, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Amy Dees

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Amy Dees


Amy McCoy Dees loves to chat about anything concerning writing and reading, especially for children. An advocate for students, she serves on the Coweta County School board. She has published numerous articles on varying topics such as education, policy making, outstanding student achievement, and parenting. Her Young Adult novel, Freedom’s Secret, was shortlisted for this year’s Georgia Author of the Year Award, 2016. To learn more please visit her at: amydees.com or follow her own Twitter @amy_mdees.

WORKSHOP

  • Set Your Work on Fire, Use Social Media as Your Gasoline! Introductions on how to make a book trailer-and post it to social media websites Step by step intros on making a book trailer Where to, when, and how to increase your ‘follow-ship’ Be engaging in PERSON and on social media-How audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Joyce Sweeney

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Joyce Sweeney


Joyce Sweeney is an awardwinning author, poet and theatrical producer. She is also a writing teacher and mentor .She offers a variety of classes and workshops, live and via Skype  and  her online courses, www. sweeneywritingcoach.com have helped her reach a national audience.  She is a member of Florida SCBWI and serves in their mentorship program.  So far, she has successfully mentored 57 students to traditional publishing contracts.

WORKSHOP

  • The Path to Publication In my 25 years of mentoring, I have learned that there are not certain writers who ‘have what it takes’, there are just writers who are willing to DO what it takes. The process of traditional publishing is long and arduous and requires a lot of patience, character building and self esteem to work through rejections and near misses. There are steps to making a writer’s dream come true and knowing the steps and being willing to commit to the work or learning craft and navigating the maze of agents and editors can lead to success....eventually. audience: Writers and illustrators, advanced.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Cathy Hall

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Cathy Hall


Cathy C. Hall just can’t seem to make up her mind. One day, she’s published in a book of puppet plays, and the next, she’s appearing in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She’s written children’s books for the Korean educational market and short stories for a Chinese kidlit magazine. She’s like the Where’s Waldo of the writing world (only way better dressed).

WORKSHOP

  • So You Want to Get Published  Many of us who join SCBWI think we must get a book published because...well, it’s the Society of Children’s BOOK Writers and Illustrators. But there are many children’s writers who are interested in poetry, short stories, plays, essays, and more--and there are plenty of kidlit markets for these children’s writers. In Part I, I’ll bring those markets to our newest writers, give first-hand tips on how to break into those markets and share the resources a new writer should have on the shelf, virtual or real. In Part II, I’ll discuss PAL membership in SCBWI and how it can benefit EVERY published member! audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Joan Broerman

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Joan Broerman


Joan Broerman, Southern Breeze RAE and 1998 SCBWI Member of the Year, writes for all ages across the spectrum of newspapers, magazines, and books. She has contributed to more than a dozen books on the craft and business of writing for children. Her project, “Take a Librarian to Lunch” thanks our tireless partners in research. She blogs about children’s books for busy parents, joanbooklog.blogspot.com.

WORKSHOP

  • Rejecting Rejection   Like characters in your book, rejection is layered, not one dimensional. It plays a vital role in the writing process. Reject what rejection does TO you and make it work FOR you to improve craft and redirect marketing energy. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Monday, August 8, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Randi Sonenshine

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Randi Sonenshine


Randi Sonenshine has been an educator and professional developer for over twenty years. An instructional literacy coach and member of the ELA Advisory Council for the Georgia Department of Education, she has taught high school English, middle school language arts, and college reading. As a children’s author, she is represented by Kendra Marcus at BookStop Literary. She lives in northwest Georgia with her husband and two sons. You can find Randi at Facebook, randisonenshine.com, theproseytree.blogspot.com or on Twitter as @rsonenshine.

WORKSHOP

  • Not Just for Circle Time: Enriching your Picture Book with Content Connections    Picture books provide the perfect bite-sized segue into core disciplinary concepts and complex literacy skills that span content areas and grade levels. But how can writers navigate the tangled maze of standards that leave many experienced educators shaking their heads? And which standards are the most important, anyway? In this session, participants will learn the answers to both of these questions, plus other practical tips for writing picture books that teachers will turn to again and again! audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels.  

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Kami Kinard

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Kami Kinard


Kami Kinard is the author of The Boy Problem (Scholastic, 2014) and The Boy Project (Scholastic, 2012), which was newly released in paperback July 2016 as part of Scholastic’s WISH series. Her poetry, stories, articles, and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals for children and adults. In addition to her professional critiquing services, she is a SCBWI mentor, and often leads writing workshops at conferences and in schools.  www. kamikinard.com.

WORKSHOP

  • The Anatomy of Secondary Characters  When writing novels, we spend a lot of time developing our main characters. But secondary characters need our attention too! This session discusses how to develop secondary characters whose talents and characteristics amplify those of main characters and help them reach their goals. Using examples from many best-selling novels, we’ll look at various types of secondary characters, assigning each a part of the body, based on how they assist the main character. (Hermione Granger, for example, is the brain.) audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Sara Sargent

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Sara Sargent


Sara Sargent is an Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she acquires fiction and nonfiction in picture book, middle grade, and young adult. Previously she was an Editor at Simon & Schuster, where she worked with New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines, National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti, and Jennifer Echols, among others. She received her Master of Science in journalism from Northwestern University. You can find Sara online at www. sarasargent.wordpress.com.

WORKSHOPS

  • Worldbuilding  No matter what genre or category you’re writing in, you need to have the strongest possible world for your novel. We’ll discuss tactics for improving your world and making it so compelling that readers will never want to leave! audience: Writers, all levels. 
  • Live Editing    Ever wonder about the editorial process—what we choose to edit and why? Sara Sargent will line edit live, using one page of each participant’s manuscript to show how editors think and how they make tough decisions about what stays and what goes. audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Friday, August 5, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Brooks Sherman

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Brooks Sherman


Brooks Sherman is a literary agent with the Bent Agency, representing picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction. His clients include New York Times bestseller Adam Silvera (More Happy Than Not, Soho Teen), Morris Award winner Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Balzer + Bray), and Sam Garton (I Am Otter, Balzer + Bray). You can find Brooks sharing publishing news and horrible puns on Twitter: @byobrooks.

WORKSHOPS

  • Crafting a Compelling Query  Pick up tips and strategies for how to make your query letter stand out from the slush. Literary agent Brooks Sherman will share do’s and don’t’s of what to put in your query, and how to format it to keep it tight yet informative. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
  •  Writing a Gripping Opening   How do you craft the right balance of character, setting, and plot in your manuscript’s first pages to hook an agent, editor, and reader? Literary agent Brooks Sherman discusses the characteristics that make up a compelling opening for your middle grade or young adult novel, pointing to concrete examples from published (and soon-to-be-published) works. audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Orli Zuravichy

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Orli Zuravichy


Orli Zuravicky has been in children’s publishing for over fourteen years. She is currently a Senior Editor at Scholastic, where she works on illustrated and photographic fiction and nonfiction for ages 0-7. She specializes in acquiring board books, novelty books, picture books, readers, and nonfiction. She is also a published author, and is currently working on her first middle-grade series.

WORKSHOPS

  • Developing a Strong Picture Book Character   In this workshop, I’ll talk about what makes a strong picture book character, focusing on some bestselling characters in the market as examples. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
  • Breaking into the Board Book & Novelty Market In this workshop, I’ll focus on breaking down the board book and novelty market and what makes a break-out bestseller, as well as what kind of challenges the market faces. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
  • Developing a Strong Picture Book Character  In this workshop, I’ll talk about what makes a strong picture book character, focusing on some bestselling characters in the market as examples. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Tansuri Prasanna

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Tansuri Prasanna


Tansuri Prasanna holds a PhD in jurisprudence and human rights law from Oxford and a Master’s degree from Harvard Law School. She has worked at the World Bank’s legal department and as a teaching fellow at Columbia Law School. Her love for children’s books motivated her transition into publishing and before joining HSG she interned at Knopf Young Readers and Foundry Literary+ Media. Tanusri is interested in kidlit ranging from picture books to middle-grade and young adult fiction.

WORKSHOPS

  • Encouraging Diversity in Children’s Books    This session will discuss the collective action required to promote kidlit that truly reflects the reality of the world around us, so that children can see themselves honestly portrayed in the books they read, in a way that is inclusive of race, religion, gender, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, ability and other identifiers of diversity. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
  • Role of the Literary Agent  This session will discuss the role played by an agent from helping get the manuscript in shape for submission, the submission process, negotiating the publishing contract and managing an author’s career together with the publisher, drawing from HSG’s practices and philosophy. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Don Tate

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Don Tate


Don Tate is an award-winning author, and the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children, including The Cart That Carried Martin, (Charlesbridge); Hope’s Gift, (Penguin); Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite (Charlesbridge); and Ron’s Big Mission, (Penguin). He is also an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor winner. His recent titles include The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Illustrator, Eerdmans, 2015), and Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Author and illustrator, Peachtree, 2015). Don is a founding host of the The Brown Bookshelf–a blog dedicated to books for African American young readers; and a member of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. 

INTENSIVE

  • Drawing on Diversity & Style to Create Authentic Characters The call for more diversity in children’s literature is not new. However groups like We Need Diverse Books and The Brown Bookshelf have helped to bring more attention to the issue.

WORKSHOPS

  • My Journey    Overnight success does not always happen overnight. In fact, for Don Tate, overnight success took thirty-plus years to attain. This self-described “Longestcoming up-and-comer” will share his journey from reluctant grade-school reader to published illustrator, and then on to becoming an award-winning children’s book author. In his breakout, Tate will discuss some lessons learned, myths vs. reality, and he will offer practical advice for both aspiring and published authors and illustrators. audience: Illustrators, all levels.
  •  For writers and illustrators: Creating Winning Picture Book   Biographies   As an illustrator, words frightened Don Tate. After all, artists create pictures, they don’t write stories. So how did a non-word person go about writing award-winning picture books (one that he did not illustrate)? In his breakout session, Don will reveal all of that, discussing both sides of the bookmaking process. How do creators of picture book biographies find and then zero in on the right information? How can illustrators find their writing voice? And what about research— how do I know what to include and leave out? Don’s breakout will include his process of planning a story from initial inspiration through creating thumbnail sketches and dummy books. audience: Illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~