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  Workshop Description Back to Founders Workshop Main Page
 

Date: May 23–25, 2010
Arrive Sunday, May 23, for opening with kosher lunch
Depart Tuesday, May 25, after lunch

Designed For: Writers of Jewish-themed fiction and nonfiction for children

Maximum Capacity: 10 participants

  
 

WORKSHOP FOCUS
Finally! A hands-on workshop specifically designed for writers of Jewish-themed content. Whether your manuscript has slight or overwhelming Jewish content, this is the workshop for you. Unlike a one-day conference, this workshop includes one-on-one manuscript critiques with a literary agent and editor, a book discussion group (there will be some pre-workshop reading), and real-time writing with immediate critique.

In addition, you’ll learn

  • the future of Jewish children’s literature;
  • what agents and editors look for; and
  • best practices in writing Jewish content for children.

Note: All meals will be kosher.

Workshop Fee of $995 includes cozy, individual cabins; all meals (provided by a top-notch chef); airport pickup service, if needed; and an intimate teaching setting in the living room of the Founders of Highlights for Children!

  
General Workshop Information Request an Application for this Workshop
  Workshop Leader


Barbara Krasner

 Barbara Krasner
Barbara has published four books, including Discovering Your Jewish Ancestors, and two hundred articles, eighty of which are for young readers. Her work has appeared in or has been accepted by B’nai B’rith International Jewish Monthly, Forward, Babaganewz, Calliope, Cobblestone, Highlights for Children, and Odyssey. Her mission is to tell the story of the Jews, and she has recently enrolled in a conversational and written Yiddish class. She visited her grandparents’ shtetlach in Poland in 2008 to research a novel. When she’s not working on Jewish-themed novels and a biography, she works as a senior Web copywriter and editor for a legal publishing company.

Barbara has an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She has led fiction and nonfiction writing workshops for Toastmasters International and nonfiction article writing for Highlights Foundation. She is also coordinator of the annual Jewish Children’s Book Writers Conference at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Her photo exhibit, “My Home Is Gone—Remnants of Jewish Poland,” recently appeared at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center in New Jersey.

  Guest Faculty

Françoise Bui
 Françoise Bui
Françoise is an executive editor at Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, where she acquires manuscripts for middle-grade and young-adult readers. Recent novels she has edited include All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab, Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins, The Giant-Slayer by Iain Lawrence, as well as two novels that depict the Jewish experience, A Faraway Island by Annika Thor and Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer (November 2010).

Debra Hess
 Debra Hess
Debra joined Highlights for Children as a Senior Editor in June, 2009.  She is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books for children, including Thurgood Marshall, the Fight for Equal Justice, a NY Public Library Best Books for the Teenage, and Wilson Sat Alone, an acclaimed picture book that was made into a PBS Storytime Special.  Debra was Editorial director of Weekly Reader Custom Publishing, Editor of Scholastic News, and Senior Editor at Scholastic Library Publishing.  She has been published by Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins, Hyperion and Harcourt.

Mary Kole
 Mary Kole
Mary came to children’s literature from a writer’s perspective and gotinvolved at Andrea Brown Literary Agency to see what it was like “on theother side of the desk.” She quickly found her passion here and, after ayear of working behind the scenes, has officially joined the agency. In herquest to learn all sides of publishing, she has also worked in thechildren’s editorial department at Chronicle Books and is currently earning her MFA in creative writing at the University of San Francisco. 

Rubin Pfeffer
 Rubin Pfeffer
Bio to come.

Devorah Leah Rosenfeld
 Devorah Leah Rosenfeld
Dina (Devorah Leah) has served as editor in chief of Hachai Publishing since 1992. Hachai became an award-winning publisher under her guidance, producing a National Jewish Book Award finalist, an honors book recommended by Parents’ Choice; winning numerous Storytelling World Awards; and earning AJL’s coveted Sydney Taylor Award in 1998 for the title Nine Spoons.

Dina is an author turned editor, having written eighteen Jewish children’s books of her own. They include The Very Best Place for a Penny, Kind Little Rivkah, Labels for Laibel, and Five Alive, an AJL notable book for 2003. She is also featured in Alan King’s anthology, Matzo Balls for Breakfast and other Memories of Growing up Jewish, as well as Rivkah Slonim’s anthology by and about Jewish women, Bread and Fire.

Peninnah Schram		 Peninnah Schram
A well-known storyteller and author, Peninnah is professor of speech and drama at Yeshiva University’s Stern College. Vibrantly elegant in her storytelling, she tells Jewish stories of wisdom and wit. Her latest book is an illustrated anthology entitled The Hungry Clothes and Other Jewish Folktales (Sterling). Her CD, The Minstrel and the Storyteller, with singer/guitarist Gerard Edery was produced by Sefarad Records. Peninnah is a recipient of a Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educator and the 2003 National Storytelling Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lisa Silverman		 Lisa Silverman
Lisa Silverman is the director of the Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library at Sinai Temple, the largest conservative synagogue in Los Angeles. She leads classes and book groups, along with organizing community programs on literature. She is the children’s editor of Jewish Book World magazine and also a reviewer of children’s literature for various other publications. She has been a board member of the Association of Jewish Libraries for many years. She serves as a judge for the children’s division of the National Jewish Book Award and also for the “Once Upon a World” Book Award given annually by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Jane Yolen		 Jane Yolen
Among Jane Yolen’s picture books are the beloved Owl Moon, which won the 1988 Caldecott Medal; The Emperor and the Kite, a 1968 Caldecott Honor Book; the How Do Dinosaurs series, which are international bestsellers; Wild Wings, which won the National Outdoor Book Award; and many others.