https://writingworkshops.com/products/writing-a-novel-in-verse-zoom-seminar

Thinking about writing a novel in verse? The novel-in-verse is a unique form that merges elements of poetry and fiction, and is gaining popularity in the kidlit community as a powerful storytelling form. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the craft and thematic elements that make for a strong novel-in-verse, explore some examples of effective novels in verse, and engage in exercises to investigate this form for our own narratives.

We’ll also learn about tools to carry in your novel-in-verse toolbox including sound, repetition, line breaks, the stanza, “the rules of the poem” and more. Learn how to establish and disrupt patterns of form as well as integrate motifs to make your novel really shine. We’ll walk through the process of how I’ve approached form in my adult poetry, as well as my novel-in-verse Good Different, and will have time for exercises playing with form. If you’d like, feel free to bring some poems from your novel-in-verse that you’d like to play with.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Learn what a novel in verse is.

• Learn what kind of stories are best told in the novel in verse form.

• Get industry insights on the kidlit novel in verse market.

• Learn exercises to play with for generating and editing your novel in verse

https://www.scbwi.org/events/novel-in-verse-101

Thinking about writing a novel in verse? The novel-in-verse is a unique form that merges elements of poetry and fiction, and is gaining popularity in the kidlit community as a powerful storytelling form. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the craft and thematic elements that make for a strong novel-in-verse, explore some examples of effective novels in verse, and engage in exercises to start investigating this form for our own narratives. 

March 19th, online

7-8:15pm EST

$30/$15 for premium members

Time TBD

Program Title: Big Issues for Young Readers: Writing & Publishing Debut Authors
Program Description: Meet upper middle grade authors who treat big themes for tween readers. They will share practical tips for aspiring writers on writing books about contemporary themes that appeal to readers from middle school and up, plus talk about what it’s like to work on these stories with agents and editors. Bring any writing or publication questions you have!

Want to submit your work to magazines but don't know how? In this workshop, we'll talk about what literary magazines are, what editors are looking for in submissions, have a “translation” exercise, tips on how to get the most out of a lit mag, tips for approaching writing a cover letter and contributor bio, as well as how to handle rejections.

The skills you learn in this session can easily apply to other publication realms, including writing to agents and editors of small book presses. All participants will receive a complimentary magazine of their choice.

Participants will have time during the seminar with interactive prompts and will also receive resources to continue writing on their own.

I’ll be tabling and speaking at Ocean City Comicon! Would love to see you there!

Environmental Storytelling & Show Don’t Tell: How I Learned to Write through Playing Video Games

The popular saying goes: “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” With the rapid developments in technology, our storytelling is changing to not just be on the page, but through movies, television, and video games--highly visual mediums. Through the power of images, we can convey a whole narrative in a short space. Games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Gone Home use environmental storytelling to give us pieces of characters’ lives. In this workshop, we’ll discuss examples of games that tell stories through objects, and go into our own writing exercises inspired by video games. 

https://www.easternshorewriters.org/event-5434851

Meet debut picture book, middle grade and young adult authors and illustrators as they share their publication and writing journeys, what they’ve learned along the way, and practical tips for aspiring writers on working with agents and editors. Bring any writing or publication questions you have!
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MEG EDEN KUYATT teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different,” a JLG Gold Standard selection (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at megedenbooks.com.

J.P. TAKAHASHI is the author of TOKYO NIGHT PARADE (HarperCollins/Tegen, 2023) and a literary agent by day. She's the Director of Special Projects at POC in Publishing, and previously worked in editorial at Scholastic/AALB and Levine Querido while attending NYU and the City University of New York. Her next book releases in 2025.

CHARLENE THOMAS is a young adult author from Montgomery County, MD. She received a minor in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University and her MBA from Emory University. When she was sixteen years old, she wrote a manuscript that received the National Novel Silver Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Her debut novel, SETON GIRLS, released in August 2022, and her sophomore novel, PEEKABOO, releases in 2024.

https://www.scbwi.org/events/AuthorWebsite

A website is a critical platform for a writer or illustrator at any stage of their career to have. But where do you start? And which platform should you use? In this webinar, two authors will discuss the platforms they use for their author websites, and the pros and cons of Squarespace and Wordpress. We will discuss the importance and function of having an author website, the critical information it should contain, and how authors can decide which platform is the best fit for them.

TBA: https://www.mtsu.edu/write/conference.php#virtual

https://www.brazosbookstore.com/event/virtual-thushanthi-ponweera-i-am-kavi

Caught between two worlds—a poverty-stricken village and a fancy big-city school—a young Sri Lankan girl must decide who she really is and where she really belongs.

1998, Colombo. The Sri Lankan Civil War is raging, but everyday life must go on. At Kavi’s school, her friends talk about the weekly Top 40, the Backstreet Boys, Shahrukh Khan, Leo & Kate… and who died—or didn’t—in the latest bombing. But Kavi is afraid of something even scarier. She fears that if her friends discover her secret—that she is not who she is pretending to be—they’ll stop talking to her. 

I want to be friends with these / happy, / fearless, / girls / who look like they / belong.

So I could also be / happy, / fearless, / and maybe even / belong.

Kavi’s scholarship to her elite new school was supposed to be everything she ever wanted, but as she tries to find some semblance of normalcy in a country on fire, nothing is going according to plan. In an effort to fit in with her wealthy, glittering, and self-assured new classmates, Kavi begins telling lies, trading her old life—where she’s a poor girl whose mother has chosen a new husband over her daughter—for a new one, where she’s rich, loved, and wanted. This dazzling novel-in-verse from an astonishing new talent introduces readers to a world rarely seen in middle grade and stars an unforgettable heroine each and every one of us can relate to.  

That’s when it comes crashing down on me. / I have been spending all my time / since I came here / preparing for the / wrong / test.

Thushanthi Ponweera is an author and poet from Sri Lanka. Before daring to follow her dream of being published, she was a marketing specialist and entrepreneur. Her writing reflects the frustration she feels at the inequality and injustice she sees around her and the deep love she has for her island home. After having lived all her life in Colombo, Thushanthi recently moved to Qatar with her husband and two children.  I Am Kavi is her first novel.

Meg Eden Kuyatt teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different,” a JLG Gold Standard selection (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at megedenbooks.com.

https://www.writingheights.com/event/ProfessionalKidness

Join us for this interactive discussion and workshop to ask all your middle grade questions, and take part in exercises to explore your own middle grade voice and find joy in the process.

Author Gennifer Choldenko describes being a middle grade writer as being “a professional twelve-year old.” To write middle grade, we can’t merely remember childhood, we have to re-learn how to be kids and write with a 12 year old’s worldview. But how do we do that? After all, middle grade is the great between: it’s not quite edgy enough to be young adult, but it’s got more heft than a chapter book. It’s right in the middle, just like the age of its readers: not quite a teen, but not exactly into the same kid things they were when they read Dr. Seuss. What exactly are the criteria for middle grade, and how do we write compellingly for this market? How do we get in a space to write the elusive but critical middle grade voice? Join us for this interactive discussion and workshop to ask all your middle grade questions, and take part in exercises to explore your own middle grade voice and find joy in the process.

https://writingworkshops.com/products/revising-and-pitching-with-focus-the-thesis-of-the-novel

Once you've written a draft, it can be difficult to figure out where to go next. A range of people will provide feedback, but who is right? How do you go about discerning what to edit and what to keep the same?

To effectively edit, it’s critical to identify a novel’s underlying argument—it’s heart. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the “thesis statement” approach to editing, looking at examples of novels’ “thesis statements,” as well as providing exercises to help you identify and hone in on your novel’s thesis.

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

• You want to revise your novel but don’t know where to start.

• You know your novel needs to be condensed but aren’t sure how to decide what is cut and what is kept.

• You want to strengthen your pitch for your novel 

Join us on Saturday to talk about synopses! Don't need to write romance to come; applicable to all genres!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/synopsis-as-a-road-map-with-author-meg-eden-kuyatt-tickets-686880406787?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.monkeycon.org/

I’ll be tabling with a bunch of book bundle specials, earrings, necklaces and more! Would love to see you!

Join Us on Sunday August 6, 2023

at the Bohrer Park Center 10am - 4pm

506 S Frederick Avenue

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Gap in the Shelf: Upper Middle Grade

 https://www.hooray4books.com/calendar/2023/7/20/event-gap-in-the-shelf-author-roundtable

Get 20% off by buying all 4 of these authors’ books together! The books are Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt, Turtles of the Midnight Moon by María José Fitzgerald, Indigo and Ida by Heather Murphy Capps, and It Happened on Saturday by Sydney Dunlap.

While middle grade typically centers protagonists ages 8-12, YA mostly has protagonists ages 15 and up, leaving a gap on the shelves for young readers aged 13-14. Current middle grade trends leave them little opportunity to see themselves represented on the page. There is a critical need in the middle grade space for those readers aged 13-14, but publishers are still reluctant to expand this category. Librarians, teachers, and young readers are searching for stories that address “tough” topics at an age-appropriate level. Where are the 13 year old protagonists, and how do we change the publication landscape? Hear from four authors who are tackling this challenge, covering themes from environmental and social justice to neurodivergence and human trafficking. Join us for this roundtable conversation on the middle grade market and how authors are filling the upper middle grade gap–tackling important and serious topics in a way that is accessible to the middle grade reader.  

Panelists: Heather Murphy Capps, Sydney Dunlap, Meg Eden Kuyatt, Maria Jose Fitzgerald

Bios:

Meg Eden Kuyatt teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different,” a JLG Gold Standard selection (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at https://linktr.ee/medenauthor.

María José Fitzgerald is a writer of children’s books. Her favorite stories usually include animals, friendships, family, and magic. She grew up snorkeling and hiking in her homeland of Honduras, where nature and culture nourished her soul. Her debut novel, Turtles of the Midnight Moon (Knopf, 2023) was selected as an ABA Indie’s Introduces and Indie’s Next book for Winter/Spring 2023. When she’s not writing, you can find Maria teaching, reading, walking her dogs, relaxing with her family, or out on a  mountain bike ride. She is represented by Sara Crowe at Sara Crowe Literary.

Heather Murphy Capps grew up in a small Minnesota town where the motto is: “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” She spent 15 years as a television news reporter (with a brief side trip into politics) before turning to her favorite kind of writing: middle grade fiction. She writes books with history, social justice, science, magic, and a touch of mystery. She’s a mixed-race author committed to diversity in publishing and an administrator/contributor to the blog From the Mixed-Up Files … of Middle-Grade Authors where she created and curates the monthly “We Need Diverse MG” series. Her Booklist starred debut middle grade novel is INDIGO AND IDA. (Carolrhoda Books/ Lerner April 2023) She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two kids, and two cats.

Sydney Dunlap is a former elementary school teacher who has worked with at-risk youth in a variety of settings. She enjoys reading and writing heartfelt, hopeful fiction that expands young readers’ awareness of tough topics. She is a published poet and has also written for a newspaper. Her debut novel, It Happened on Saturday, has been named to School Library Journal’s Mock Newbery Blog and included in a Kirkus Reviews feature spotlighting books that promote mental health for kids. She is a lifelong animal lover and lives with her family in a home where the dogs and cats outnumber the people.

Hooray for Books

      1555 King Street

  Alexandria, VA 22314

        703-548-4092

https://chesapeakechildrensbookfestival.com/

https://writingworkshops.com/products/what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-submitting-to-agents-and-editors

This workshop will equip you with everything you need to jump into the publishing industry.

We’ll discuss the roles of agents and editors, what they’re looking for in work, and how you can make your work stand out through strong query letters, pitches, and bios. As someone who has worked on both the author and publicity sides of the fence, I can describe my experience with most effectively approaching marketing and submitting books from both angles.

We’ll also discuss some key tips for how to get to know agents and editors better. No project is required for this workshop; however, students who have a manuscript in mind will have opportunities to create and practice a mini-pitch for the class.