Conference Updates & KidLit Events June 21
It’s time to get a fresh 2017 writing calendar. Information on next year’s writing conferences and retreats is rolling in. The Highlights Foundation has already added several workshops, which I’ve listed below.
HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY!
This week’s greetings go to my friend and former moderator on the SCBWI Discsussion Boards,
Diana Murray
for her new picture book
CITY SHAPES
Illustrated by four-time Caldecott Honoree
Bryan Collier
Published by Little, Brown
From shimmering skyscrapers to fluttering kites to twinkling stars high in the sky, everyday scenes become extraordinary as a young girl walks through her neighborhood noticing exciting new shapes at every turn. Far more than a simple concept book, City Shapes is an explosion of life. Diana Murray’s richly crafted yet playful verse encourages readers to discover shapes in the most surprising places, and Bryan Collier’s dynamic collages add even more layers to each scene in this ode to city living.
We’ll be seeing a lot more happy book birthday wishes for Diana Murray soon. She has several picture books in the works, two more for 2016, two in 2017, one in 2018, and three which have not yet been announced!
LOCAL KIDLIT AUTHOR EVENTS
JUNE 25, SATURDAY, 2:00-4:00 PM: KRISTEN MARTIN, YA AUTHOR
Katy Budget Books
Local author Kristen Martin presents her Dystopian YA, THE ALPHA DRIVE. It’s the year 2055 and an anarchist organization has taken control with the aim to create a world-class society. Half of humankind is unknowingly living in an alternate reality called Dormance…and there are no plans to wake them up.
Sixteen-year-old introvert Emery Parker is one such dormant. An academic scholar who avoids ruffling feathers at all costs, Emery finds herself being transferred to a boarding school on the outskirts of Arizona. Little does she know, a family secret has the power to change the course of the future. When she’s approached with an opportunity to free the dormants, she sees no other choice but to accept, even though failure could mean having her memory wiped clean.
But when tech-savvy Torin Porter reaches out to her from the other side, Emery begins to question everything she was told about Dormance. If her family’s secret falls into the wrong hands, the world as she knows it will be faced with irreversible consequences. Now Emery must play both sides to uncover the truth about her family’s past or risk leaving mankind to live in an unconscious reality.
CONFERENCE UPDATES
Please note that some of these updates are for the 2017 writing calendar. For more information, go to the main conference pages. If you’d like to be notified of these weekly posts, please use the form on the left sidebar to Subscribe to Updates.
AGENTS & EDITORS @ CONFERENCES
AUGUST 19-21: HISTORICAL WRITERS OF AMERICA, COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG, PA
AGENTS: Madelyn Burt/Stonesong; Susan Schulman/Susan Schulman A Literary Agency; Nephele Tempest/The Knight Agency
OCTOBER 21-23: (PDF) SCBWI WISCONSIN FALL CONFERENCE, GREEN LAKE, WI
ART DIRECTOR: Lauren Rille—Art Director, Simon & Schuster
EDITORS: Beth Terrill/North-South Books; Kelsey Murphy/HarperCollins; Bonnie Bader/Grosset & Dunlap/Penguin; Phillip Martin/Crickhollow; Mary Ann Rivers & Ruthie Knox/Brain Mill Press
AGENT: Danielle Smith—Red Fox Literary
FEBRUARY 16-19, 2017: SAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
EDITORS: Kendra Levin, Penguin Random House/Viking
RETREATS & WRITING WORKSHOPS
JULY 10-14: GUIDED RETREAT, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHOR: Jill Sullivan
SEPTEMBER 6-10: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHOR: Meg Medina
SEPTEMBER 22-26: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Jerry Spinelli, Eileen Spinelli
OCTOBER 9-13: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Suzanne Bloom
OCTOBER 7-9: MICHIGAN ROAD TRIP RETREAT, HARBOR SPRINGS, MI
EDITORS: Brett Duquette/Sterling Children’s; Kendra Levin/Viking Children’s Books
AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATORS: Deb Pilutti; Leslie Helakoski; Shutta Crum; Kelly Barson
JANUARY 8-17, 2017: GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NOVEL, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHOR: Sarah Aronson
MARCH 26-29, 2017: WRITING OFF THE PAGE, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHOR: Kekla Magoon
MARCH 30-APRIL 3, 2017: NUTS AND BOLTS OF SCIENCE WRITING, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Miranda Paul, Jennifer Swanson
APRIL 20-23, 2017: COLOR, LIGHT, LINE, & TEXTURE, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS/ILLUSTRATORS: Denise Fleming, Ashley Wolff, Suzanne Bloom
MAY 7-14, 2017: WRITING THE UNREAL, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Laura Ruby, Anne Ursu, Christine Heppermann
EDITOR: Deborah Kovacs—Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
JUNE 22-25, 2017: PB&J AND ALL THAT JAZZ, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS/ILLUSTRATORS: Darcy Pattison; Leslie Helakoski
OCTOBER 4-8, 2017: BOOKS WITH BITE: WRITING HORROR AND HAUNTED NOVELS, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Nova Ren Suma, Micol Ostow
OCTOBER 12-15, 2017: THE JOKE’S ON YOU: THE SCOOP ON HUMOR MG THROUGH YA, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Uma Krishnaswami, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Sean Petrie
OCTOBER 25-29, 2017: GETTING YOUR NOVEL UNSTUCK, HONESDALE, PA
AUTHORS: Chris Tebbetts, Elise Broach
EDITOR: Aubrey Poole/JIMMY Patterson Books/Hachette
OCTOBER 7-9, 2017: MICHIGAN ROAD TRIP RETREAT, HARBOR SPRINGS, MI
EDITORS: Brett Duquette/Sterling Children’s; Kendra Levin/Viking Children’s Books
AUTHORS/ILLUSTRATORS: Deb Pilutti; Leslie Helakoski; Shutta Crum; Kelly Barson