Or another title for this post would be, "Gone Crazy in New York City!" (after Rita Williams Garcia's latest book Gone Crazy in Alabama). I wanted to go to New York City to see my relatives (which thankfully, I did including spending time with my awesome nephew and adorable niece) but ever since SCBWI NYC in February 2015, I will never look at New York City the same again (which is why this post is Part 1 as I will write another post after my next NYC visit). New York City is like a literary candy shop with tantalizing (often free) events, colourful conferences, sweet signings, baubles of bookstores, and palpable publishing houses galore. (Enough with the alliterations already. There I go again.) A writerly visit to New York City was a great way to get inspired and boost my writing mojo. During my trip, I got to re-connect with some folks that I met at SCBWI NYC like Stacy Whitman, publisher and founder of Tu Books, and meet some new ones like author Dhonielle Clayton. On March 18th, I attended the "Between the Lines" presentation at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem where authors Jacqueline Woodson and Renee Watson read from their latest books, spoke about their work, and did a signing. (As you know, Jacqueline Woodson is one of my favourite authors I have most wanted to meet.) My shyness with meeting celebrated authors is decreasing as I am finding that they are more like kindred spirits navigating the world of words, like myself. (I was delighted to find two short videos on Renee's site entitled "Jacqueline Woodson & Renee Watson Photographed in Brooklyn" which reflect the nature of the talk I saw at the Schomburg.) Their talk was brilliant and I extracted a number of "take homes" and nuggets of wisdom which I have highlighted here:
1) Ask your elders questions because they become ancestors so quickly.- Jacqueline Woodson
2) Put stuff on paper... it all matters.- Jacqueline Woodson
3) People tend to think of Black books only as mirrors. They can be windows too. White and other kids need to learn about Black lives and cultures.- Renee Watson
4) Read and write world... I had to fight for teachers to teach me.- Renee Watson
5) Less is more. Write minimally. Get to the emotion. To get to it, cry as you write it. Read lots of picture books as they are often poetic, each line stands on its own.- Jacqueline Woodson
6) My writing isn't for sale. Sometimes it means not being published.- Renee Watson
7) I'm not afraid to be broke... I won't sell out my soul or myself.- Jacqueline Woodson
8) We shall wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we've done it.- Jacqueline Woodson quoting the late Caribbean-American writer Audre Lorde
9) Change the world through writing.- Jacqueline Woodson
The highlights of my trip were the "tea times" which the social introvert in me soaked up. These were the one-on-one and small group times when I got to talk about the literary scene, diverse children's books, and all things in between with another one of my favourite authors, Coe Booth-- on her birthday. (Coe is really fun and nice and has Caribbean roots too. Guyana to be exact. I feel honoured that we got to speak as a writing peers not writer and fan.) I must admit that I am taken aback with the level of literary critiques that I encountered which pushes me to want to read more current children's and young adult authors. One author that I place in this category of giving great critiques is fellow Canadian, Brooklyn-based author Zetta Elliott (awesome new website, by the way) whose blogposts and literary essays honestly grapple with a variety of challenges in the children's publishing industry. I got to meet Zetta, for the first time on March 21st at the NYC Teen Author Festival after being inspired by her work to write my opinion essay Who Will Write Our Stories? for Canadian Children's Book News in Fall 2014. At the festival, I attended a panel called Issues of Representation in YA which included authors Coe Booth, Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton of Cake Literary, and IW Gregorio, hosted by organizer, author, and publisher David Levithan of Scholastic. I was happy to see this "hot topic" on the schedule that I feel the children's book industry is paying attention thanks to the We Need Diverse Books campaign. (By the way, I got to meet a few members of the NYC-based WNDB team.) Unfortunately, when I arrived, they had already started this panel early. :-(C'mon people! I'm coming all the way from Canada.) With 7 authors who represented different types of diversity (e.g., sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender), an hour was way too short to have addressed all types of representation. Nevertheless, I feel so blessed to have met these authors and experienced more of the NYC literary scene during my trip. Can't wait for my next visit!
1) Ask your elders questions because they become ancestors so quickly.- Jacqueline Woodson
2) Put stuff on paper... it all matters.- Jacqueline Woodson
3) People tend to think of Black books only as mirrors. They can be windows too. White and other kids need to learn about Black lives and cultures.- Renee Watson
4) Read and write world... I had to fight for teachers to teach me.- Renee Watson
5) Less is more. Write minimally. Get to the emotion. To get to it, cry as you write it. Read lots of picture books as they are often poetic, each line stands on its own.- Jacqueline Woodson
6) My writing isn't for sale. Sometimes it means not being published.- Renee Watson
7) I'm not afraid to be broke... I won't sell out my soul or myself.- Jacqueline Woodson
8) We shall wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we've done it.- Jacqueline Woodson quoting the late Caribbean-American writer Audre Lorde
9) Change the world through writing.- Jacqueline Woodson
The highlights of my trip were the "tea times" which the social introvert in me soaked up. These were the one-on-one and small group times when I got to talk about the literary scene, diverse children's books, and all things in between with another one of my favourite authors, Coe Booth-- on her birthday. (Coe is really fun and nice and has Caribbean roots too. Guyana to be exact. I feel honoured that we got to speak as a writing peers not writer and fan.) I must admit that I am taken aback with the level of literary critiques that I encountered which pushes me to want to read more current children's and young adult authors. One author that I place in this category of giving great critiques is fellow Canadian, Brooklyn-based author Zetta Elliott (awesome new website, by the way) whose blogposts and literary essays honestly grapple with a variety of challenges in the children's publishing industry. I got to meet Zetta, for the first time on March 21st at the NYC Teen Author Festival after being inspired by her work to write my opinion essay Who Will Write Our Stories? for Canadian Children's Book News in Fall 2014. At the festival, I attended a panel called Issues of Representation in YA which included authors Coe Booth, Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton of Cake Literary, and IW Gregorio, hosted by organizer, author, and publisher David Levithan of Scholastic. I was happy to see this "hot topic" on the schedule that I feel the children's book industry is paying attention thanks to the We Need Diverse Books campaign. (By the way, I got to meet a few members of the NYC-based WNDB team.) Unfortunately, when I arrived, they had already started this panel early. :-(C'mon people! I'm coming all the way from Canada.) With 7 authors who represented different types of diversity (e.g., sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender), an hour was way too short to have addressed all types of representation. Nevertheless, I feel so blessed to have met these authors and experienced more of the NYC literary scene during my trip. Can't wait for my next visit!
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