Workshops for Children's Authors & Illustrators | Highlights Foundation

Phoebe Yeh

highlights — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:43:37 +0000

Phoebe knows a thing or two about finishing a manuscript. She and her team of editors are responsible for the estate programs of C.S. Lewis, Maurice Sendak and Shel Silverstein. They also oversee The Series of Unfortunate Events publishing program and the Let’s-Read-and Find-Out-Science series. Yeh edits the New York Times best-selling series Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce and the New York Times best-selling new adult Crash series by Nicole Williams. She also works with Walter Dean Myers, current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, whose novel Monster won the first Michael L. Printz. Other authors Yeh works with are Eric Kahn Gale, author of The Bully Book an Indie Next List Top Ten Pick and an Amazon Best Book; Peter Johnson, author of The Amazing Adventures of John Smith, Jr. aka Houdini, a Kirkus Best Book of 2012; and Soman Chainani, author of the upcoming debut tween novel, The School for Good and Evil. Other titles on Yeh’s list are realistic humorous tween fiction Confessions of a So Called Middle by Maria T. Lennon (Fall 2013) and fantasy tween adventure Luck Uglies by Paul Durham (2014), thrillers Find Me by Romily Bernard (2014) and Fake ID by Lamar Giles (2014) and realistic teen fiction He Said, She Said by Kwame Alexander. She has worked with nonfiction luminaries Aliki, Seymour Simon, Betsy and Ted Lewin, Betsy and Giulio Maestro and Anne Rockwell. Prior to her arrival at Harper in 1996, she was a senior editor at Scholastic Press, where she edited the Magic School Bus books by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen, and was an editor of the SeeSaw Book Club for K-1 readers.

Pat Cummings

highlights — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:00:57 +0000

Pat Cummings was born in Chicago but grew up traveling with her military family all over the world. She has been writing and illustrating children’s books since she graduated from Pratt Institute. In addition to her art for the Coretta Scott King Award winner My Mama Needs Me by Mildred Pitts Walter, Pat’s luminous work includes Angel Baby; Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon!; and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Talking With Artists. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Chuku Lee, and the ghost of their cat, Cash.

Rosemary Agoglia

highlights — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:47:31 +0000

In 2002, beloved author and illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle and his wife, Barbara, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a nonprofit art museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Carle’s mission is to inspire a love of art and reading through picture books. It also creates educational programs that provide a dynamic and engaging foundation for arts integration and literacy. An active participant in international collaboration, most recently in Italy, The Carle is a recipient of many prestigious awards and grants. The Carle’s Curator of Education, Rosemary Agoglia, provides outstanding professional development at the museum and will facilitate both weekend workshops.

Linda Rose

highlights — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:55:39 +0000

Linda Rose is an associate editor with Highlights magazine. She currently edits most of the magazine’s puzzles, games, and activities, and writes “Goofus and Gallant” and “BrainPlay” for each issue. Linda has many years of experience critiquing nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and activity manuscripts at Highlights. She is excited about this workshop’s potential to help authors find a path to publication through material that kids gobble up.

Joy Chu

highlights — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:22:22 +0000

Joy teaches children’s book illustration at UC San Diego Extension, both online and in the classroom. She has art directed and designed hundreds of books for more than 20 book publishers all over the country. She has worked with many award-winning artists, including Ed Young, Gerald McDermott, Chris Demarest, Barry Moser, Trina Schart Hyman, Frané Lessac, Jeanette Winter, Debra Fraser, Margot Zemach, David McPhail, Richard Jesse Watson, Don and Audrey Wood, among others.

Her work has been cited by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA); the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI); the American Library Association (ALA); Bookbuilders West; the National Book Awards; Print, Step-by-Step Graphic, and Publisher’s Weekly magazines. She is currently working on the art direction, layout, and production of a definitive American Sign Language dictionary for children, in collaboration with a team of illustrators and editors, for Gallaudet University Press.

Regina Brooks

highlights — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:13:16 +0000

Regina is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her agency represents a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young-adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Among these are author Marilyn Nelson, three-time National Book Award finalist and winner of aNewberry Honor, Coretta Scott King Honor, and the Michael Printz Honor Award; author Sundee Frazier, winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award and Al Roker’s Book Club for Kids; and Bill Wright, Junior Guild, Stonewall, and LAMBDA award winner. Brooks is a former executive editor at John Wiley and Sons and McGraw-Hill. She is the author of the children’s book Never Finished! Never Done! (Scholastic) as well as Writing Great Books for Young Adults: Everything You Need to Know, from Crafting the Idea to Landing a Publishing Deal (Source Books) and You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write, Sell, and Market Your Memoir (St. Martin’s Press). Each November, her annual contest for new writers, the YA Discovery Contest, is held in partnership with Gotham Writers Center WritingClasses.com/YAPitch. She has been highlighted in global media and TV outlets, including ABC News, CW, Forbes, Poets and Writers, Publishers Weekly, The Writer, Media Bistro, Essence, Ebony. Writer’s Digest, and the Huffington Post. She is also the owner of Possibiliteas.co, a tea company of master blended teas developed for creative minds. She is always interested in new and emerging writers.

Andrew Gutelle

highlights — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:08:02 +0000

Andy is a writer, editor, and editorial consultant with a strong interest in sports, games, puzzles, and other nonfiction subjects. He has written books for many publishers, including Random House, Putnam, Workman, and Time-Life Books for Children. As a project developer he has created many successful book clubs for Highlights for Children, including Puzzlemania, Which Way USA, and Top Secret Adventures. Andy developed the science magazine, 3-2-1 Contact and wrote 20 episodes of Reading Rainbow for which he received five Emmy nominations.

Amie Jane Leavitt

highlights — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:02:53 +0000

Amie is an accomplished author, researcher, and photographer who has written more than fifty books for kids, has contributed to online and print media, and has worked as a consultant, writer, and editor for numerous educational publishing and assessment companies. Amie is an adventurer who loves to travel the globe in search of interesting story ideas and beautiful places to capture in photographs. Over the years, she has been a featured author and lecturer at several university-sponsored book festivals, elementary school assemblies, and writing workshops. Her entrance into the world of children’s magazine publishing came about by using her own specialized “shortcuts” methods of submitting creative fillers (puzzles, activities, recipes, games, etc.) to various magazines on a consistent basis. To check out a listing of Amie’s current projects and other published works, check out her website at www.amiejaneleavitt.com.

Annie Beer

highlights — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:59:28 +0000

Annie is the editorial assistant at Highlights magazine. She began working here in 2011 as editorial intern and never left. She edits the “Crafts” and “Your Own Pages” features in the magazine, as well as special calls for art, stories, and other creative content from readers. On any given day her desk is covered in either children’s art or Elmer’s glue—and she wouldn’t have it any other way! She has published crafts and recipes in Highlights, as well as several stories, articles, and activities in the Friend magazine.

David Martin

highlights — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:16:53 +0000

David Martin is the author of numerous award-winning picture books and books for early readers. His most recent books are Peep and Ducky, illustrated by David Walker, Let’s Have a Tree Party, illustrated by John Manders and Little Bunny and the Magic Christmas Tree, illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev. His books have also appeared in the Brand New Reader series from Candlewick Press. David has been a teacher and an early literacy specialist and taught first, fourth and seventh grade for many years. He visits schools and libraries, leads writing residencies in elementary schools and conducts literacy workshops for parents, teachers and librarians. Since 1970 he has lived in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.