Today's SCBWI conference breakout sessions and keynote speakers were nothing short of amazing.
Conference Statistics:
* This year was the largest NYC SCBWI conference
* There are now 22,000 SCBWI members
* 1,047 NYC conference attendees from 14 countries & 45 states
Once again, Lin Oliver MC'd the conference. Lin owns a production company and is the NY Times best-selling author of the Who Shrunk Daniel Funk?
and Hank Zipzer
series.
She is so friendly and absolutely hilarious. I pitched her my middle grade novel book about a boy with one ear, and she told me she thought it was a great idea and to keep in touch about its progression! She is too kind!
Quirky, fun-loving author Libba Bray started off the morning with her talk on "Writing as an Extreme Sport" and "unleashing reckless abandon with our writing." Her newest book, Going Bovine
, is a best-selling YA novel about a kid with mad cow disease – it just won the prestigious Printz Award. Libba gave excellent tips on how to create layered characters by allowing the "gritty bits" to seep through.
"Make the work matter to yourselves. Experiment. Play. Put marrow on the page. Honor your worth with your honesty. Write like it matters, and it will," she told us. "This happens down in the trenches, through missteps and mistakes."
Libba said she coveted my jacket. When I told her it's from Anthropologie, she said, "Of course. I don't even allow myself in that store or I get into trouble." Girl, I feel your pain. Ahhhh, the old days when I had a discount....
Close the door and write
with no one looking over your shoulder.
~Barbara Kingsolver
We each chose three sessions to attend. In the morning, I listened to Arianne Lewin (Senior Editor, Disney/Hyperion) talk on the different genres of fantasy. While most people consider "fantasy novels" as something along the lines of Lord of the Rings, there are actually many categories and types of fantasy books for children, including "High-Fantasy," "Steampunk," "Urban Fantasy," "Paranormal Romance" and "Dystopian."
Books she mentioned that were excellent sources of fantasy study are: Hunger Games
, The Forest of Hands and Teeth
, the Bluebloods
series, The Demon King
and His Dark Materials
.
Word geniusJacqueline Woodson read her poetic stories to us during a session called "Locking the Door Upon Ourselves." Her books have won numerous awards including the Newbery Honor Medal, Caldecott Honor, ALA Notable, National Book Award Finalist and Coretta Scott King Award.
"Write so you can be sane in the world."
Jacqueline and I bonded over Mary Oliver. She told me she thought the University of Arizona had a great MFA program! That made me feel good and validated as a writer. We chatted about stanzas, line breaks, rhythm. Breathing life into our work through words.
Allyn Johnston (Vice President & Publisher @ Beach Lane Books) lectured on picture book. She provided each attendee with useful book dummies to follow along for page-and-pacing lessons. She looks for simple stories that promote magical, loving moments between an adult reader and child listener. "Books that live in that space of a family," she says.
Books she referenced:
I also attended an afternoon workshop,"Writing for Teens," led by Ben Schrank (Publisher @ Razorbill), in which he discussed the various ways he has acquired best-selling books (such as Thirteen Reasons Why
).
The great Peter Sis closed the afternoon with an hour-long talk about his childhood growing up behind the Iron Curtain. He is one of my true heroes. I love everything about him. He spoke eloquently of his youth in Prague and the struggles he endured during his teenage and college years. As an artist, Peter was instructed what he could and could not create in a Communist regime.
After he immigrated to the United States, Peter blossomed as an illustrator and animator, creating one of Bob Dylan's record covers, painting eggs for the Clintons, illustrating this famous poster and the Newbery award-winning book The Whipping Boy
. 
Peter's newest creation, The Wall
, is a picture book about growing up in a Communist country. With in-depth historical timelines, honest, complex illustrations and authentic journal excerpts, the reader is immediately drawn into this beautiful story. I honestly believe everyone should own this book (at the very least, gift it to readers ages 7-10 and open up a world of educational conversation). For Peter Sis, The Wall was the most difficult piece of work that he has ever created.
photo credit: scbwi
He created art for the New York City Transit system after 9/11. He calls his whale, "one of his favorite works."
It turns out that Peter's sister owns a tea shop in the heart of Prague. He gave me his business card & the tea shop address so that Bobby and I can check it out
when we visit the Czech Republic summer. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm obsessed with tea, so I'm really excited about this!!
Read more in-depth SCBWI conference news here.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010 
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