Pondering Primary Sources: Authenticity, Bias, and Controversy in Historical Research - Monday, July 1, 2024, 9:00 AM

Presenters will reveal their research process for:
a) gathering and authenticating primary sources,
b) examining the inclusion and exclusion of voices,
c) scrutinizing contradictory information, and
d) presenting the most compelling and complete narrative of an event.

With Roxanne F. Owens, Sarah Aronson, MFA, Candace Fleming, and Cyndi Giorgis (she/her/hers)

Read to get your Con on?

Revolutionary Comics: Revolutionaries in Our Comics
3/30/24 - 2:00 pm, Room 211

From The Eternaut and Golden Age Superman to the more recent Immortal Hulk, comics have always been a vehicle for politics and advocacy. Writers Cecil Castellucci (Shifting Earth), Sherri L. Smith (James Cameron’s Avatar: The High Ground), and JR Hughto (That Distant Fire) and comics critics Daniel Jun Kim (PopMythology.com) and Nat Yonce (Collective Action Comics podcast) speak to the comics and makers who inspired them to mix revolutionary ideas, themes, and plots into their own work.

Who’s Teaching Who?: Teaching Artists/Creators Who Teach
3/31/24 - 2:00pm, Room 213CD

To be an artist is to be a lifelong learner. We apprentice to the craft by doing and learn how to improve project by project. Many artists also teach as part of this cycle of growth. What does it mean to be a teaching working artist? How does teaching help and grow one’s own practice? What are the joys and pitfalls of teaching? How does one transfer knowledge to emerging artists? What can you learn from being educators to the next generation of working artists? Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars), Cecil Castellucci (Shifting Earth), Cory Doctorow (The Bezzle), Sherri L. Smith (Pearl), Steven T. Seagle (Man of Action), and Sarah Watson (The Bold Type) discuss the value of being creators who are also teachers.

Join Penguin Teen Canada for a tea time full of HerStory as we chat with four amazing historical fiction authors!

FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE ON EVENTBRITE

Tea and books are the perfect combination so we're inviting you to a very special tea time: a celebration of HerStory with some of our favorite authors of historical YA fiction!

Elizabeth Wein (The Enigma Game), Sherri L. Smith (The Blossom and The Firefly), Virginia Frances Schwartz (Among the Fallen), and Stacey Lee (The Downstairs Girl) will grab their favorite cuppa and chat about all things historical fiction - the research, the writing process, and their inspirations.

Purchase their books from your local bookstore or favorite online retailer and get ready for a great conversation!

Is there a question you'd love to ask them? Email sdevotta@penguinrandomhouse.com with the subject line "HerStory Question" and we'll make sure to include it in our discussion!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Elizabeth Wein was born in New York and grew up abroad, and currently lives in Scotland with her husband and two children. She is an avid flier of small planes, and holds a PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth is the author of Rose Under Fire, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award, and Code Name Verity, winner of the Edgar Award in the Young Adult category and a Printz Medal Honor Book.

Sherri L. Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent most of her childhood reading books. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she has worked in movies, animation, comic books and construction. Her fourth novel, Flygirl, an historical YA novel set during World War II, won the California Book Award Gold Medal, was a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, and has received fourteen State Award nominations.

Virginia Frances Schwartz grew up in rural Ontario, Canada, but now lives in Queens, New York, where she taught writing in the public schools before devoting her career to her own writing. She is best known for her novels for young adults which have been ALA Best Books for YAs, and winners of multiple Canadian awards including the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, the Ontario Silver Birch Fiction Award, the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, and British Columbia Red Cedar Award. She teaches a creative writing course at UCLA Online.

Stacey Lee is a fourth-generation Chinese American. A Southern California native, she graduated from UCLA and got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. Now she plays classical piano, wrangles children, and writes young adult fiction. Stacey lives outside San Francisco, California. She is also a founding member of We Need Diverse Books.

An International Peace Day Conversation on the 75th Anniversary of WWII with award-winning novelists Aimee Liu (Glorious Boy), Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (Shadow Child, Hiroshima in the Morning), and Sherri L. Smith (The Blossom and the Firefly, Flygirl, Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen?)

Monday, Sept. 21, 2020- 5-6 pm PT/8-9 pm ET
Live on Crowdcast

RSVP Here

Sponsored by Consequence Magazine & Skylight Books

What better way to celebrate than with the launch of Christine Heppermann's new novel in verse What Goes Up! Joining Christine with their fantastic new novels will be authors Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All - a National Book Award Finalist; Sherri L. Smith, The Blossom and the Firefly and Brandy Colbert, The Voting Booth.

With Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty and Ask Me How I Got Here, Christine Heppermann established herself as a vital voice in thought-provoking and powerful feminist writing for teens. Her poetry is surprising, wry, emotional, and searing. What Goes Up is by turns a scorchingly funny and deeply emotional story that asks whether it’s possible to support and love someone despite the risk of being hurt. Readers will find a complicated heroine they won’t soon forget.

From Laura Ruby, author of Printz Medal winner Bone Gap comes Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All the unforgettable story of two young women—one living, one dead—dealing with loss, desire, and the fragility of the American dream during WWII.

Also set in WWII, from the award-winning author of Flygirl Sherri L. Smith, The Blossom and the Firefly is a powerful romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war, perfect for fans of Salt to the Sea, Lovely War, and Code Name,Verity.

In Brandy Colbert's The Voting Booth Marva Sheridan was born ready to make a difference in the world, and what better way than to vote in her first election? When Marva sees Duke turned away from their polling place, she takes it upon herself to make sure his vote is counted. She hasn't spent months doorbelling and registering voters just to see someone denied their right!

REGISTER AT OBLONGBOOKS.COM

Join YA authors Sherri L. Smith, Kip Wilson, Erin Bowman and Jennieke Cohen for a discussion on how to bring historical fiction to life for modern readers.

WriteOnCon is a three-day online children’s book conference for writers and illustrators of picture books, middle grade, and young adult. It was founded in 2010 and is now run by a new team of writers who are eager to hearken back to the awesomeness that they remember so fondly from being attendees over the years, while also bringing exciting new elements to the mix.

WriteOnCon features blogs, vlogs, pitch sessions, Q&As, critique forums, and more — there’s something for every writer/illustrator, in every stage of their career. From the comfort of your home, a library, a coffee shop — any place with an internet connection — you can meet agents and editors, connect with potential critique partners, and generally soak up a whole bunch of knowledge!

For further information, visit www.writieoncon.org.

It’s a Different World Out There

Have you been considering writing for young audiences — whether picture books, chapter books, middle grade, or Young Adult (YA)?

Public radio veteran Kitty Felde will moderate and join a panel of professionals who will talk about this important niche in the publishing world and answer your questions.

When it comes to writing and being published, what’s the difference between picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and Young Adult (YA)?

Topics include:

• Do you need to draw your own illustrations?

• What are the trends?

• Do you need an agent to get published as a children’s author — and what about self-publishing?

• How do you market a children’s book?

• What reviews are important?

• What are libraries’ role in kidlit publishing?

• What’s SCBWI?