Topic of the Week: Children’s Literature April 26, 2009
Posted by Carolyn Burns Bass in children's literature.add a comment
Topic of the Week for April 27-May 1, 2009:
Reading to motivate and inspire children
Susan Taylor Brown
We’re going to chat about the impact of reading to a child’s imagination and development this week. Joining us as guest host on Friday will be Susan Taylor Brown. Susan is the author of the award winning middle grade verse novel Hugging the Rock, (2007 Notable Children’s Book, ALA, VOYA magazine’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers, The Best Children’s Books of the Year Selection, Bank Street College of Education, and Notable Children’s Book in the English Language Arts, Realistic Fiction, NCTE.) She is also the author of the picture books Oliver’s Must-Do List and Can I Pray With My Eyes Open?, and the non-fiction book Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom. Susan has published 43 books for the educational market and more than 200 of Susan’s articles and stories have appeared in magazines for children and adults.
Susan has been the recipient of several grants from Arts Council Silicon Valley which allowed her to be the Writer-in-Residence for the San Jose Alternative Schools At-Risk program and to teach poetry to incarcerated teens and has served on the faculty for the Highlights Foundation Chautauqua Conference. She is a former newspaper columnist for the New Orleans Times Picayune and past instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature.
In addition to writing, Susan does motivational speaking and leads creativity workshops for writers and readers of all ages. She blogs about the writing life at Susan Writes.
Susan lives in San Jose, Calif. with her husband, Erik, her German Shepherd Cassie, and over 8,000 books. When she’s not writing or reading, she spends her time training Cassie for her work as a therapy dog and working in her native plant garden.
Topic of the Week for April 20-24: Alternative Avenues to Publishing April 19, 2009
Posted by Carolyn Burns Bass in alternative publishers, self-publishing, weekly topics.add a comment
Traditional publishing houses are feeling double the crunch from the recent economic downturn. Not only are budgets being cut, but big publishing is undergoing a transformation as e-books are making a significant impact in the way books are published. The Kindle and other e-readers (Sony and iPhone) are reducing the amont of printed and bound books. On top of that, self-publishing giants like Lulu, iUniverse, and Amazon’s BookSurge are making it easy for writers to print their books outside the big publishing arena.
This week we’ll chat with self-pubbed authors, as well as independent editors, publicists, e-blook authors, self-publishing brands and POD printers about alternate routes to publishing. Monday will be open chat.
Elizabeth Burton
On Wednesday, we’ll talk with ElizabethK. Burton, who has been executive editor or Zumaya Publications since 2003 and took charge of the publisher’s operations in July 2006. Zumaya was established in 1999 by authors Tina Havemen and Diana Kent Jones and incorporated in 2006.
Initially, Zumaya opted for print on demand (POD) for the simple reason it was the economical way to produce print books. Zumaya does not require any author financial participation; set-up and production costs have always been Zumaya’s responsibility. As Elizabeth became immersed in the business of publishing–up till then she was a writer and editor-she saw the wastefulness of the existing business model as unacceptable. (Overprinting and remaindering books.) After some research, she determined POD can be more economical and environmentally friendly.
According to Elizabeth, Zumaya’s inventory-free business model distinguishes them among other alternative literary publishers. Zumaya doesn’t do print runs unless they’ve been ordered. Zumaya is committed to presenting quality books by talented authors and leaving behind as little environmental footprint as possible.
Carmen Shirkey
l recap the week’s discussion with guest host and author Carmen Shirkey. Carmen published her novel The List through BookSurge.
Carmen received two degrees in Rhetoric and Communications and History from the University of Virginia (she’s a crazy Wahoos fan) where she was also a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She then proceeded to become a gypsy – moving from city to city. Currently, she resides in Virginia, but who knows where she’ll end up next. Her cat, Pooh Bear, who is also a character in The List, would prefer to stay in one place long enough to adequately mark his territory.
Aside from writing, Carmen’s passion is travel. She once got a fortune cookie that said “you will step on the soil of many countries” and took it seriously. She hopes that enough people will buy her book so that she can go on permanent vacation, instead of packing all her travel into two measly weeks a year. That’s how much vacation she gets in her full-time gig as a Web editor. Carmen Shirkey was born in Staunton, VA, and The List is her debut novel.
Topic of the Week: Contemporary Poetry April 13, 2009
Posted by Carolyn Burns Bass in poetry.3 comments
Topic of the Week for April 10-17:
Contemporary Poetry
Dobby Gibson
LitChat honors poets and poetry along with the rest of the nation during National Poetry Month. Joining us as guest host on Friday, April 17th is Dobby Gibson, author of two poetry collections, Skirmish and Polar. Skirmish was released by Graywolf Press in January of this year. Polar (Alice James Books) won the Beatrice Hawley Award in 2004. Dobby lives in Minneapolis.
Reviewers said about Skirmish:
“These mostly short, free verse poems hum with gloomy humor and the mood of pregnant anticipation one finds in a Paul Auster novel. Gibson is no escapist, though, portraying an anxious America in the new millennium.” Publishers Weekly
“Like a photo whose power lies in having its focal point not in the middle of the picture but on its periphery, Gibson demonstrates that it’s not about what you’re seeing—it’s about what you’re ignoring.” Library Journal
Reviewers said this about Polar:
“Gibson’s land teems with a language so alive and so imaginative that one cannot help but read on with wonder and rapture.” Bloomsbury Review
“Polar can mean opposites, harsh light, or a vast white blankness, and it is an apt title for Gibson’s first poetry collection, which reverberates with absences—weather, time, places, sensations—either going or gone.” Library Journal
Topic of the Week: Going Back in Time with Historical Fiction April 6, 2009
Posted by Carolyn Burns Bass in fiction, weekly topics.3 comments
C.M. Mayo
You don’t read a historical novel, you live through it. A good historical novel transports you back in time, entertaining you with story, while educating you with fact. Join us this week at LitChat while we discuss historical fiction.
Concluding historical fiction week at Litchat on April 10th is : C.M. Mayo is the author of the forthcoming novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, as well as the widely-lauded travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, and Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Founding editor of Tameme, the bilingual Spanish/English) chapbook press, Mayo is also a translator of contemporary Mexican poetry and fiction. Her anthology of Mexican fiction in translation, Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, was published by Whereabouts Press in March 2006. Mayo’s stories, essays and poems have appeared in numerous U.S. literary magazines.
Unbridled Books will offer a copy of The Last Prince of Mexico to a LitChat participant during C.M.’s appearance.
Follow C.M. on Twitter here.
