Founders Workshop

Nonfiction Writing for Children and Young Adults

Nonfiction Matters. Publishers crave new and different nonfiction. Teachers and librarians desire stories about real people, real places, and really interesting world events. Kids yearn to fill their minds with facts. Everyone wants and needs nonfiction.
Nonfiction Writing for Children and Young Adults explores this need from all angles: editorial, business, and, most importantly, from that of the reader and writer. The Highlights Foundation offers you a chance to explore factual writing through a range of topics, including nonfiction voice, biography, memoir, nature writing, science writing, and creative techniques in nonfiction. Your one-on-one mentor will help you polish your nonfiction manuscript and give it the accuracy and depth needed for publication.

Additional opportunities include

connecting with acquiring editors;
developing necessary research and interview skills;
exploring today’s magazine and trade-book markets; and
exposure to visual design through illustration and photography.

Note: Lodging will be in a comfortably furnished cabin with an in-suite bath, shared by two people. Based on your input, we’ll do our best to pair you with a compatible roommate.

Workshop Leaders

Peter P. Jacobi

Peter is professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University and a consultant with magazines and corporations, helping CEOs, writers, and editors learn to express their ideas more effectively. His articles have appeared in World Book, the New York Times, Highlights, and others.

Candace Fleming

Candace is an award-winning author of numerous books for children. She discovered the joy and music of children’s books by reading aloud to her two sons.

Larry Dane Brimner

Larry Dane Brimner is the author of more than 150 books for children. While Larry has written both fiction and nonfiction for children, he is best known for his gritty works about the Civil Rights movement in America. We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin, winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award and the Norman A.

Lionel Bender

Lionel Bender is the author of more than seventy informational books for children. He is an editorial partner of the book production group BRW (Bender, Richardson, and White). BRW specializes in illustrated nonfiction for children, how-to books and guides, and encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Stephen R. Swinburne

Steve Swinburne is the author of more than twenty-five children’s books. Primarily a nonfiction writer, he draws on his life experiences for inspiration, including his job as a park ranger and his extensive world travel. Steve’s book Whose Shoes? A Shoe for Every Job recently won Pennsylvania’s One Book for Every Child award.

Carolyn P. Yoder

Carolyn is currently editor of Calkins Creek Books—the U.S. history imprint of Boyds Mills Press. Calkins Creek specializes in nonfiction and historical fiction picture books, chapter books, and novels. Carolyn is also the senior editor of history for Highlights for Children.

Laurence Pringle

Laurence Pringle is an accomplished writer of nonfiction. He has written more than one hundred books for children about animals and insects (Dinosaurs and Their World; Cicadas! Strange and Wonderful; An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly, to name just a few), as well as humanitarian and environmental issues.

Cyndi Giorgis

Cyndi Giorgis is a professor of literature education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she teaches courses in children’s and young-adult literature, multicultural literature, literary theory, and visual literacy. Cyndi has been a member of the Caldecott, Newbery, and Geisel Award committees.

Andy Gutelle

Andrew is a writer, editor, and editorial consultant who has participated in the development of many publishing projects for children. He has written non-fiction books for many publishers, including Random House, Putnam, Workman, and Time-Life Books for Children. Andy received five Emmy nominations for his work on the television show Reading Rainbow.

Workshop Information

July

with dinner at 6PM

through

July

after lunch

$1,785

Request an Application

Founders Workshop

Nonfiction Writing for Children and Young Adults

Workshop Leaders

Special Guests

Workshop Information