N.H. Senzai's Blog, page 2

San Francisco Litquake

Litquake (October 1-9, 2010), San Francisco's literary festival showcases hundreds of Bay Area writers for a week of readings, discussions, films, cross-media happenings and more I spent an amazing hour with authors and poets in front of 250 awesome middle grade students earlier this week, at the San Francisco Main Library. I was asked to present at Kidquake, which is a part of San Francisco's annual Literary Festival called Litquake. Kidquake is festival-within-a-festival and was launched in 2004 as organizers decided theyneeded more of a children's component to the event.  Along with me was a talented husband wife team, Jon Voelkel and  Pamela Craik Voelkel who gave an exciting and informative look at their hot new book MIDDLEWORLD, a fast paced adventure story about archaeology and Mayan mythology. The three students from the Creative Writing Department at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA) were unbelievably talented -- just 15-17 years old, their poetry was moving, smart and deeply insightful. They went on to give poetry workshops to many of the students. It reminded me that I loved writing poetry in middle school -- it's wonderful way to have kids connect with themselves by putting thought to paper.The kids asked amazing questions and were fun to meet!

Cybils are Now Open!

The Cybils Awards, or Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, are a series of book awards given by children's and young adult book bloggers. Co-founded by Kelly Herold and Anne Boles Levy in 2006, the awards were created to address an apparent gap between children's book awards perceived as too elitist and other awards that did not seem selective enough.Books are nominated by the public in nine genres of children's and young adult literature: Easy Readers & Short Chapter Books, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Novels. Nominees go through two rounds of panel-based judging before a winner is announced in each category. Finalists and winners are selected on the basis of literary merit and kid appeal.Panelists are volunteers and must be active bloggers with extensive experience in children's or young adult literature, either as readers and enthusiasts or as authors, librarians, booksellers, teachers, or others with verifiable investment in the world of children's literature. Anyone can submit a book, just follow the simple rules:
* Anybody may nominate a children's or young adult book published October 16 of the preceding year -  October 15 of the contest year.* Books must be written in English or they may be bilingual.* Only one book may be nominated per person, per category.* Nominations open October 1 and close October 15 of the contest year.* Books should exemplify award criteria of literary merit and "kid appeal."* Audiobooks currently are not part of the awards.

(Yes, SHOOTING KABUL was nominated by Amanda Snow)

Grazie Italia!

It may be said that book printing, after its birth in medieval Germany, was carried to maturity in humanistic Italy. The printing press reached Italy very early (1462–63), via the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, which had strong German connections and a famous scriptorium -  Encyclopædia Britannica
I just heard that Italian rights for SHOOTING KABUL have been acquired! Another excuse for another trip (as if you need an excuse...) 

Some Darn Good Books

Cynthia Liu, author (PARIS PAN and THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA) and frequent guest speaker recently put a call out to fellow writers to name what she titled "Contemporary Children's and Teen Fiction Books Featuring People of Color Recommended by Authors of Contemporary Children's and Teen Fiction Books Featuring People of Color." Quite a mouthful, but quite a list to! As she says in her blog, she presented at the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association Breakfast about "Diversity within Diversity," emphasizing the importance of seeking out books that feature contemporary kids and teens of color that don't focus solely on race, cultural, or ethnic heritage. These books may also deal with other issues that today's children and teens face, ranging from the serious to the light-hearted."The list includes books for young readers, like ROSES IN MY CARPET by Rukhsana Khan & JACKSON JONES AND MISSION GREENTOP by Mary Quattlebaum; Middle Grade includes THE GREAT WALL OF LUCY WU by Wendy Shang & RICKSHAW GIRL by Mitali Perkins; and for older readers DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS? by Randel Abdul Fattah & HATERS by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.This list is being updated regularly, and you can provide your input to. Here are her guidelines:Books must feature a person of color (POC) as a main character.These books are not solely about racial, cultural and ethnic heritage. These books may also deal with other issues that today's children and teens face, ranging from the serious to the light-hearted.Books must have been first published in 2000 or later.  Books are set in current day times, or even in the future, so long as the character is from current day times (i.e. contemporary main character).Books do not have to be award-winners or well-known. They just have to be winning books to the authors who recommended them.Books must be published by a trade publisher listed in the CWIM or CBC.If you are an author of a contemporary fiction children's and teen book featuring a person of color and would like to recommend qualifying books for this list, please complete the form at http://www.cynthealiu.com/Happy Reading!

Market Checkup

 AAP's mandate covers both the general and the specific — broad issues important to all publishers as well as issues of specific concern to particular segments of the industry. The Association's "core" programs deal with matters of general interest:intellectual property; new technology and digital issues of concern to publishers; Freedom to read, censorship and libel; international freedom to publish; funding for education and libraries; postal rates and regulations; tax and trade policy...

Obamafiction

Regardless of your opinions on politics, right or left leaning, it is a fact that we've never had quite such a literary President. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, was followed by the AUDACITY OF HOPE: THOUGHTS ON RECLAIMING THE AMERICAN DREAM. His most recent work is due in November and is a children's book, OF THEE I SING: A LETTER TO MY DAUGHTERS. Not only does President Obama write, he is heavily written about in children's literature as well.

Philip ...

Hint of the Future

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other - C.P. SNOW, New York Times, 15 March 1971




Reading publishers weekly today, I was struck by two pieces of similar news, dealing with the collision course of publishing and technology. Rick Richter, former president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, is now heading Ruckus Media, a company that specializes in creating high-definition animation apps for...

Been Out a Bit...

I apologize for having disappeared... After the launch of SHOOTING KABUL I took some down-time, hung out with family and took a breather. But having SK out has been awesome, fingers crossed the reviews have been great and some wonderful authors and Bloggers have been chatting about the book. Here are two posts that came out, one one Mitali Perkin's blog, Mitali's Fire Escape, and the other on Cynthia Leitich Smith's Blog, Cynstations

Book Birthday!

Shooting Kabul officially released today and can be found at your local independent bookseller, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and on-line. The path to publishing has taken two years of hard work, with many people involved - my agent, editor, cover artist, marketing & sales personnel and host of others. Needless to say, I'm beyond excited!

The Book that Killed a Tree

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years - www.rain-tree.com According to a new study released by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a large percentage of children's books sold in the U.S. are made from paper that includes "fiber linked to the clearing and conversion of Indonesia's rainforests." 90 percent of the world's acacia pulp is produced in...