Destination Publication! Conference Faculty
We’re proud to announce the faculty for Destination Publication!
Kirby Larson is the acclaimed author of the 2007 Newbery Honor Book, Hattie Big Sky, a young adult novel she wrote inspired by her great-grandmother, Hattie Inez Brooks Wright, who homesteaded by herself in eastern Montana as a young woman. In addition, Kirby has written three books for children, including the award-winning picture book, The Magic Kerchief. Her latest book is Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival. This story about two good friends was co-written with Kirby’s good friend, Mary Nethery.
Marla Frazee is the author-illustrator of A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, which received a Caldecott Honor Award and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, Roller Coaster, Santa Claus the World’s Number One Toy Expert, and Walk On! She is the illustrator of many other acclaimed books, including The Seven Silly Eaters, the NYT bestselling Clementine series, and All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon. She teaches children’s book illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and works in a small studio cabin in the backyard under an avocado tree.
Cheryl Klein is the senior editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic. Among the titles she has edited are A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, winner of the inaugural William C. Morris Award for a YA debut novel; Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano, winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for a book in translation; Millicent Min, Girl Genius, and four other novels by Lisa Yee (coedited with Arthur Levine); and Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork. She also served as the continuity editor for the last three books of the Harry Potter series. Visit her editorial website at www.cherylklein.com. Cheryl is bringing special guest author, Sara Lewis Holmes.
Lisa Graff is an Associate Editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, where she works on all sorts of books, from picture books to YA. Lisa is also the author of several middle-grade novels, including THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE, which was nominated for the Texas Bluebonnet Book Award. Her most recent novel, UMBRELLA SUMMER, came out in June 2009. For more information visit Lisa’s website at www.lisagraff.com.
Stacy Cantor has been with the Bloomsbury USA company since 2005, starting at the Bloomsbury Children’s Books imprint as an Editorial Assistant and eventually moving over to Walker Books for Young Readers, where she is currently an Editor. Since then she has worked on fabulous books that span many genres, with a personal fondness for funny or strong read-aloud picture books, coming-of-age middle grade, and YA that’s both literary and commercial. Stacy is looking for edgy and hard-hitting YA that explores contemporary issues, middle-grade with a strong commercial hook, and anything with a juicy romance at its heart.
Andrea Cascardi has more than twenty years experience in book publishing. Beginning as an editorial assistant at Houghton Mifflin and moved up the ranks at several major Publishing houses including Scholastic, Crown/Random House and Hyperion, and Knopf and Crown Books before joining Transatlantic literary agency. Award-winning authors and celebrities whose children’s books she edited are Faith Ringgold, Karen Hesse, Julia Alvarez, Raffi, Tim Burton, and Wendy Wasserstein. Andrea currently represents Shana Burg of Austin.
Mark McVeigh represents writers, illustrators, photographers, and graphic novelists for both the adult and children’s markets. His goal as an agent is to help people with a creative vision find a home for their work at a publishing house. Since he’s worked in the field for so long, he knows just about every established editor and has always kept his eye on the promising newcomer. “If a person has a unique idea, concept, or vision and a voice, I’ll do all I can to help them shape it into a manuscript that can work in today’s market.”
Nathan Bransford (Curtis Brown, LTD) represents a wide range of genres and is particularly interested in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, young adult fiction, historical fiction, mystery, science fiction, business, sports, politics and popular culture. Nathan was born and raised in Colusa, California, where he learned a thing or two about rice farming, and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in English. Please feel free to visit his blog at http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com.
Liz Garton Scanlon is assistant professor of creative writing at Austin Community College, a mother of two daughters, and the pen behind the pages of picture books All the World (illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Simon & Schuster) and A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes (illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser and published by HarperCollins). Scanlon is also author of the forthcoming Noodle and Lou (illustrated by Arthur Howard, Simon & Schuster, 2010) and Happy Birthday, Baby (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Scanlon blogs at http://liz-scanlon.livejournal.com/ and invites you visit her web site at www.LizGartonScanlon.com.
Shana Burg is the award-winning author of A Thousand Never Evers. Set in 1963 Mississippi, the book tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who launches a civil rights movement of her own. Amazon named A Thousand Never Evers one of the 10 Best Books of 2008 for middle-grade readers. Shana’s debut novel won a Parent’s Choice silver honor, as well as the National Parenting Publications Award. VIsit Shana at http://shanaburg.com/
P.J. Hoover grew up visiting museums and dreaming of finding Atlantis. She eventually married and had two children, shifted her dreams to reality, and began a writing career. Her middle grade SFF novels, The Emerald Tablet and The Navel of the World, tell the story of a boy who discovers he’s part of two feuding worlds hidden beneath the sea. Prior to writing full time, P.J. worked as an electrical engineer designing chips in Austin, Texas. Visit P.J. at http://www.pjhoover.com/
Jacqueline Kelly was born in New Zealand and grew up in the dense rain forests of Vancouver Island. She practiced medicine for many years before attending the University of Texas School of Law and then practiced law for several more years before fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a writer. Her debut novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Henry Holt, 2009), has been named One of the Best Books of the Year so Far by Amazon, and it was featured on Good Morning America as a great pick for teen summer reading. Jacqueline Kelly now makes her home with her husband and various cats and dogs in Austin and Fentress, Texas. Visit Jackie at http://jacquelinekelly.com/
Chris Barton is the author of The Day-Glo Brothers (Charlesbridge, 2009; illustrated by Tony Persiani), the biography of the inventors of those daylight-fluorescent oranges, yellows, and greens you see every day, and the decidedly non-nonfiction Shark Vs. Train (Little, Brown; 2010; illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld). He will follow up these picture books with a title for older readers, a collection of profiles of impostors and other masqueraders to be published by Dial in 2011.
Jennifer Ziegler is the author of the YA novel How Not to Be Popular (Delacorte, 2008), a pick for the 2009-2010 Lone Star Reading List. She has also written Alpha Dog (Delacorte, 2006) a finalist for the 2007 Teddy Award, and many other young adult series books penned under the pseudonym Lynn Mason. A former English teacher, Jennifer lives in Austin, Texas where she continues to write books as well as talk about her experiences at libraries, schools, conferences, and book festivals. She credits her wonderfully patient husband and two hilarious kids with keeping her happy and inspired. Visit Jennifer at www.jenniferziegler.net.
Philip Yates second picture book, A PIRATE’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Sterling Publishing, 2008) was called “a fun addition to the subgenre of wacky adaptations of the classic” by the school library journal. His first, TEN LITTLE MUMMIES, published by Penguin-Putnam (2003), was hailed by Horn book as a “cheerfully offbeat addition to the genre,” while Booklist called the book “an excellent read-aloud.” Philip is the co-author, with Matt Rissinger, of several books of humor for children, including their latest, GALAXY’S GREATEST GIGGLES and NUTTIEST KNOCK-KNOCKS. His poetry has appeared in Lee Bennett Hopkins’ anthology, DINO ROARS, which Good Reads praised as “delightful treasury of prehistoric poems.” His father was the first director of of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and his mother was the prime jokster who inspired him with her jokes. Yates lives with his wife, Maria in Austin, Texas. Check out an interview with philip at http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2008/11/author-interview-philip-yates-on.html
Special Guest Author, Sara Lewis Holmes, is the author of Operation Yes (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009) and Letters From Rapunzel (HarperCollins, 2007, Ursula Nordstrom Fiction Prize.) She has found space to write in eleven states and three countries. She now lives in Virginia with her husband and two children. Visit Sara at http://www.saralewisholmes.com/
Featured Illustrator, Patrice Barton, earned her Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in Studio Art. Her work appears in children’s trade books, magazines, and the educational market. Her clients include Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, Random House, Ideals Publications, Scholastic Book Club, Ladybug Magazine, Highlights, High Five, Clubhouse Jr. Magazine, Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, QED Publishing and Red Leaf Press. Patrice works digitally from her home in Austin, Texas which she shares with her husband, son, and their sweet dog, Clara. Visit Patrice at http://patricebarton.com/
