End of a Housing Era at Hollins University

The houses on Faculty Row were old, granted. They were falling apart, yes. But, they were where faculty lived on campus. They had good energy and great flow. And they had great views. I sat on the back porch of Jenine's house many times eating cornbread and watching the sun set.But time moves on. The houses are being torn down.They've been checked for asbestos and any live power or gas lines.Monday, the demo began. So many of us have stopped to just watch. They are coming down so quickly. I hear they will be replaced by sweet townhouses. I imagine they will be very tasteful and cute in keeping with Hollins campus.
     But still...
     Change happens and it is so often bittersweet.

Francelia Butler Banquet

After the Francelia Butler Conference was the banquet. It's a nice time to gather with faculty and alumni. Here I am with fellow faculty member Mary Jane Begin and one of my students, Deanne Sander.I got to talk to Elaine Magliaro, winner of this year's Margaret Wise Brown Award. That thing is heavy! Here she is with our keynote, Uma Krishnaswami.Ruth moved all of our picture book characters (created by Ashley Wolff) into the dining room as decorations. We rarely get to see all of them in one place, so I thought I'd share. Can you name them all?



All said, it was a lovely end to a lovely day!

Coloring Page Tuesday - Lemonade Monster

     Even monsters enjoy a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day! CLICK HERE for more coloring pages.
If you use my coloring pages often, please...

Just love this one image? Consider a one-time donation...

CLICK HERE to sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week.

     I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! For instance...
my debut novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET - winner of over a dozen literary awards, including Georgia Author of the Year. Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Ruth and Shadra at the Hollins Museum

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University featured two of our faculty this summer - Ruth Sanderson and Shadra Strickland. Ruth is the Co-Director of our program, which Shadra came to do talks and a workshop.Jenine Culligan and the rest of the museum crew always do such an impressive job putting artwork together in a way that covers process, finishes, and books in the perfect way. Ruth had an opening for the illustrations she did for Margaret Wise Brown's Four Fur Feed. Then Shadra gave a talk/tour for several of her books on display. Students loved seeing the works in person.The show was the wrap-up for Shadra's visit, but it's still open for filks to visit, to see her's and Ruth's work. Visit the Museum Website to learn more.

Francelia Butler Conference 2018

Saturday, Hollins hosted the student-run Francelia Butler Conference. This year's theme was "A Sea of Stories." Students made fantastic decorations for the event, like these clever clams...and jellyfish! Here's Gabriella Crivilare, one of this year's Co-Chairs under one of her creations. There was quite a crowd this year! I look forward to this conference every year as it's a wonderful opportunity to hear what our students have been creating - academic articles, poetry, stories, and illustration presentations. An illustrious keynote is invited to speak each year. This year it was Uma Krishnaswami, a long time online friend, and now a friend in person! It's also when the Margaret Wise Brown Prize is awarded. This year's recipient was long-time elementary school teacher, Elaine Magliaro with her book Things To Do - her first book! The book took ages to create and has made quite the splash on the children's lit scene with its gorgeous poetry and illustrations by Catia Chien.
     We also celebrated Amanda Cockrell, our program director who is retiring this year. There was cake...and lots of hugs. Here I am with our new program director, Lisa Fraustino, Amanda, Me, and Candice Ransom.But what I love most about the conference is how I use the time. I sit in the back and listen to the readings while I create all my cards for friends who have shown me kindness and for my students. These are the creations from this year, that will be in the hands of their recipients soon!The whole thing finishes with a silent auction. All of the books offered every year are so tempting, but I can't carry them home, so I don't try to buy them. I did get a new pouch to hold my traveling art supplies though - yay! That evening was the banquet - more on that soon!

Shadra Strickland at Hollins University - the Workshop

On Saturday, Shadra Strickland did a linocut workshop with our students. She talked about her method behind reductive print-making, which is probably one of the most difficult techniques out there. There's a great video on how to do it HERE. Ironically, it's the same one I watched at the University of Edinburgh when we were being taught the method during my MFA. Here are our students watching carefully, trying to get it.In this photo you can see all the Margaret Wise Brown Prize Books too. Each student came with a poem and a simple illustration to work with. They first went over those.They they planned their process, coloring the layers they would need.Once that was worked out, they began to carve the linoleum.Reductive printing takes several steps. You print a layer, carve some more, print a layer, carve some more. It takes time. But the results are beautiful. Look at the amazing results Shadra achieved in her book A Child's Book of Prayers and Blessings. She did as many as 16 layers in some of these pieces - WOW!
      Shadra was great with our students - I knew she would be. They had a great time learning this tricky method, that can, ironically, be done in a very small space at home. Shadra made it accessible and achievable. She was down to earth and inspiring. I hope we can have her back again soon!

Friday Links List - 20 July 2018

From Storiarts: Did you know about these awesome gloves for writers? What a great gift!

From SLJs Travis Jonker: The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children's Books of 2018

From the Atlanta Black Star: Tomi Adeyemi, Best Selling Author, Tweets About Scary Police Incident: 'I Instantly Saw Their Guns'

From The Guardian (via PW): Authors steer boys from toxic masculinity with gentler heroes

From PWs ShelfTalker: A Peril of the Page Turn by Elizabeth Bluemle

From The Good News Network: State (Virginia) is Boosting Bee Populations By Giving Free Hives and Equipment to Beekeepers

From Brightly: The Best Children's and YA Books of July 2018

From HarperCollins: YAY! Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted finally has a sequel!

From Romper (via PW): 15 Children's Books Every Adult Should Own, Because You'll Take All The Wisdom You Can Get

Uma Krishnaswami's STEP UP TO THE PLATE MARIA SINGH

In my ongoing series of faculty and visiting speakers to Hollins University's Children's Literature Graduate programs, I bring you long-time email friend, Uma Krishnaswami, who I finally get to meet in person this week!

Reality, Fiction, and Why I Keep on Writing
by Uma Krishnaswami
      It’s not always easy being a writer. A lot of people don’t get what I do. Many confess they’d love to write a children’s book. What they mean is that they don’t think it’s that difficult and so they’d love to be, not writers, but the authors of published books. It’s the product they’re after—the bright, glossy picture books, the cute middle-grade jackets with smiley kid faces on them. Who wouldn’t want their names on books for young readers?
      I’ll bet those same people would retract their wishes double-quick if I offered them a day at my desk. Working alone—four hours at a stretch without another human being to speak to face to face. A day spent writing 1,000 words and throwing out 500 of them. Facing the 15th revision of a novel and knowing I’m not there yet. Tossing out the picture book idea that has no traction, after spending months trying to wrangle it onto the page. And we’re not talking yet about fielding rejection letters.
      So why do I write, other than for the inescapable reason that if I didn’t, I’d be unemployed?
      I write because I have to. Because as a child growing up in India, I didn’t see myself in any of the books I read, so it took me until I was thirty-one and a new mother to figure out that real, live people could write children’s books. I write because the stories keep bubbling up. I only write the ones that won’t leave me alone, and there are still enough to keep me going for the rest of my days.      Sometimes I write in order to tell clear and simple truths. Out of the Way! Out of the Way! is the picture book story of a boy who takes a single, simple action, enables a tree to grow, and becomes witness to his changing community. No action, no tree.      Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh came from my interest in the stories of so-called “Mexican Hindu” families of California’s Yuba City and Imperial Valley. It began as an intellectual exercise and only became a story when I gave up authorial control and let the character lead the way. For example, I didn’t plan at first for the story to involve softball, but as I wrote successive drafts, that became inevitable. What sport would a girl pick, when what she longed for, above all, was to be recognized as American? I didn’t have a choice. That story led me to meet with descendants of those early Punjabi immigrants in Yuba City, to walk around Yuba City with a 1945 map in my hand, trying to see the place as it might have been.      In Book Uncle and Me, nine-year old Yasmin means to read a book a day for the rest of her life. When her supplier is threatened, she needs to take her nose out of her book and do something. There’s an election going on—isn’t that how things change in the real world? But wait—kids can’t vote. But then again, they have a voice. And they should use it, because sometimes grownups just can’t see sense. I don’t say that last part in the book but I sure hope that kids get that subtext. I hope the readers of this book will grow up to be adults who vote, who keep an eye on their communities, who care about fixing corruption and unfairness in the world.
      Let’s face it, the world is as beautiful or cruel a place as we humans make it. These days, there are times, especially when I turn on the news, that I’m just about ready to give up on humankind—our collective indolence, fear of powerful bullies, refusal to stand up for what’s right, the instinctive refuge we take in self-interest and self-preservation. But I also see stories of people who are brave and kind and generous and refuse to accept that cruelty and injustice are inevitable—people who put their own lives on the line for freedom and justice, or who volunteer their time and expertise in dangerous places, to help those who need it most.
      And me? I write. And maybe, through my writing, I work on conveying a worldview that values hope and justice and fairness. If a book of mine validates child readers, if it helps to make them believe that a tree matters, if it shows them to speak out against unfairness, or imbues them with the will to make a difference—well then, I’ve done my job. I may not live to see that new and improved world for myself, but my readers might. Maybe some of them will even be instrumental in creating it.

Bio:
      Uma Krishnaswami was born in India and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her story collection, The Broken Tusk: Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha, has been in print for twenty-two years. Uma’s novel, Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh, is the 2017-18 winner of the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature in the children’s category. Her chapter book, Book Uncle and Me, won the International Literacy Association’s Social Justice Literature Award and is a USBBY Outstanding International Book. Uma teaches in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. 

Shadra Stickland at Hollins University - the Lecture

We had the great pleasure of hosting Coretta Scott King Award-winner Shadra Strickland at Hollins University recently. Shadra and I have known each other for years, since I invited her to be in gallery shows in Atlanta. So, it was so nice to reconnect!
     She gave a lecture at Hollins on Friday.She talked about her history and evolution as an artist - how she embraces different styles rather than attempting to pigeon-hole herself.And she shared her process.
     Here is her storyboard for A Child's Book of Prayers and Blessings which she created with reductive printmaking - a very difficult and impressive achievement. (More on that soon.) She also shared statistics from the CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center) about the representation of people of color in books, both in the books and as creators. Click the slide to go learn more about this study.It was a great talk and set the stage for what proved to be an entertaining and educational weekend.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Dragon and Penguin

     I've had this fascination recently of a little penguin with some very big friends. But really, who better to be friends with a dragon than a flightless bird in a very cold clime? CLICK HERE for more coloring pages.
If you use my coloring pages often, please...

Just love this one image? Consider a one-time donation...

CLICK HERE to sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week.

     I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! For instance...
my debut novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET - winner of over a dozen literary awards, including Georgia Author of the Year. Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Margaret Wise Brown Prize Book Sorting

A new responsibility has arisen at Hollins University that I love doing - it's sorting through the Margaret Wise Brown Prize book submissions. Publishers send their top books for consideration throughout the year - boxes and boxes of them. We can't keep all of them (although we'd like to). So, we curate the collection. This ends up being a wonderful opportunity to examine the books, sort them, and identify trends. Such as this pile of books on Social Issues - a pile that didn't exist until recently.This stack of books from 'Own Voices' was lovely to see as it's growing. And here was the remarkable discovery - the tallest pile by far was the stack of biographies. They are obviously IN right now!As I sort, I read, read, read. So, by the end of this exercise, I'm fairly well-versed on the latest books in the industry. What an awesome thing! Thank you Margaret Wise Brown Prize!

VIDEO: FOLI (there is no movement without rhythm)

Original version by Thomas Roebers and Floris Beeuwenberg. This is FABULOUS!! Thank you to Betsy James for turning me onto it! Click the image to watch and listen on YouTube. I dare you to stay still!