Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Writing & Illustrating For Young Readers (and other cool stuff)

The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference is back for another incredible year! Spearheaded by author Carol Lynch Williams, the conference aims to “lift” the craft of writers nationwide by providing a forum for interaction between industry professionals and published and/or aspiring writers. The 2011 year will feature a bevy of workshops with nationally best-selling authors and illustrators, afternoon sessions with publishing professionals, the opportunity to interact with agents and editors, writing contests, and much more.

Registration is now open for the 2011 conference; however, morning workshops are filling quickly. Novel classes with publishing luminaries such as Martine Leavitt and Holly Black have already sold out. The faculty roster also includes nationally-renowned Kathleen Duey, A.E. Cannon, illustrator Kevin Hawkes, and Claudia Mills, among others.

If you live anywhere near Salt Lake City, or can get into Salt Lake City, this is one of the best conferences ever! And hey, we could meet and do lunch!

Find out more at the WIFYR facebook page, their twitter, or their YouTube channel. And stay tuned for some crazy-exciting stuff from none other than one of my all-time favorite authors, Kathleen Duey! *tiny squee*

Other Cool Stuff: Stasia Ward Kehoe's AUDITION cover was released last week. All I can say is "Yum." Stasia is an amazing person, and she's doing some fun things on her blog. Check out what her "Year of Auditions" is all about.

Happy book birthday to LIKE MANDARIN by Kirsten Hubbard! You guys, you'd love this book. I'm not going to give away too much, but make sure you check in every day next week for some amazing amazingness that's all related to LIKE MANDARIN!



What kind of cool stuff do you have going on around you?
Do share.

29 comments:

Theresa Milstein said...

Conference sounds great. But I'm far away from Utah so I can't attend.

I just read an interview with Kirsten Hubbard. She explained all the steps she went through from agent edits to publication. And the description of the book made me want to read it.

Another one for the list!

I'm attending the NESCBWI conference in Fitchburg, MA in mid-May.

Natalie Aguirre said...

Wow! That's so cool. Wish I lived there so I could have lunch with you. Maybe you could do a book tour that stops in Ann Arbor. Hint. Hint.

My cool stuff--the announcement came out yesterday that I'm Casey's blog partner.

Can you explain how you get your blog comments to come up in your e-mail so you can respond as a reply to it? FYI, I don't have the comments come to my e-mail.

Matthew MacNish said...

All the coolest writing stuff seems to go in in Utah.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for telling us about the con, Elena. I'm up in Alberta, so have it on my radar for next year or the year after. Never been to Salt Lake City.

And yes, hearing fantastic things about Like Mandarin, have to get it read.

Anonymous said...

All the good things seem to always be in the US :-)

I heard about Audition and already have it on my TBR list.

My cool stuff - Received my first ARC. Feeling very nervous and honoured.

I hope you get a kick out of this, my Possession box.

Hope you enjoy the conference.

Paul Greci said...

That was my first-ever, and still favorite writers conference I attended. And I've attended three since then.

Stuff going on here?? Well, I'm just obsessed and possessed with a revision I'm doing and came up for air and read your blog.

Brodi Ashton said...

I love WIFYR! I learned so much workshopping my book with Martine Leavitt there two years ago. Thanks for plugging it!

Stina said...

I've just registered for the RWA national conference in NYC for June (still thinking about the LA SCBWI one), so Salt Lake City is out for me.

I've preordered Like Mandarin. Audition looks good. I'll be adding that to my list. :D

Sara B. Larson said...

I love WIFYR, but since I'm going to be super preggo, I didn't sign up this year. I hope you have a great time!

Jenilyn Collings said...

I'm so excited to go to WIFYR again this year! It's such an awesome conference. And I totally want to take you up on the lunch offer. :)

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I probably won't be attending WIFYR this year. But I love that conference and do hope to attend again, soon. =D

I love Stasia's cover (especially the words in the background) and Kirsten's looks pretty fab in its own right.

Nothing too exciting here for me. Just kids faking sick. ;)

Nicole Zoltack said...

Well, I have a short story released today so I'm excited abut that, but I'm even more excited for a writer's conferences that is held at the most 15 minutes away from me. It's in three weeks, and I can't wait!!

Tracey Neithercott said...

Oh darn, Utah's far, far away. But, you know, come to the East Coast and I'll buy you lunch. (You take, bribes, right?)

Jennie Englund said...

This is one of those times I wish I had Facebook.

Shari said...

WIFYR is an amazing conference. I learned so much there. I can't go this year, though. :(

Chersti Nieveen said...

I'm so excited about WIFYR -- thanks for posting about it, Elana. But this year should be awesome. I'm signed up for Martine's class :-) And if you do end up lunching with peeps from the conference, I'm up for that! Just let me know.

Stasia said...

Sounds like a great conference. I've never been to Utah. Maybe one of these days... Thanks for the cover shout-out.

Heather said...

I wish I could make it to Salt Lake City that sounds like so much fun! And of course I'd love to meet you in person. Sounds like a fun contest for POSSESSION, I'm on my way to check it out!

Emily said...

I am going to this conference and it's my first one so I'm a little nervous. I'm even leaving my family for a whole week to do this.

If you're serious about lunch, I'm in!

Henya said...

I just bought a cool pair of shoes today. Red, canvas, double platform. Cool! Don't you think?
:)
:)

https://booksthoughtsadventures.com said...

Hmm...the only semi cool thing around us this week is the garden show...

ali cross said...

I think the Like Mandarin cover is really pretty too. I'm not going to WIFYR this year, but I might go for the keynote.

Cool stuff going on around me? Hmm. Betas reading my MS! Scary and fun!

Karen Lange said...

The conference sounds great! Sorry I'm not close enough to attend. Or independently wealthy enough to charter a jet and fly out... Oh well, perhaps another year! :)

Myrna Foster said...

I attended the conference when they had it at BYU, and it was awesome. I'd be seriously tempted to make the drive this year, if there were any spots left in Holly Black's workshop.

Cool things happening around me. Um . . . my daughter is washing the dishes?

Unknown said...

The conference sounds great. Of course, I am looking forward to writeoncon as well!
Since you asked, my current project is formatting my YA novel for release this summer (and finishing up the sequel). Whew!

Jemi Fraser said...

I'd love to attend the conference, but not this time around.

Cool things? Reading & loving Liar Society, talking about hooks/leads with kids at school - and they're loving it!!!

Ishta Mercurio said...

This May, I'm attending a writers' retreat and conference in Niagara Falls, and the organizer based the structure of the days on no other than her conference experiences in Utah! How's that for cool?

Also, in non-writing-related news, my kids are on a two-week-vacation from school, so we've got science and craft projects lined up for the forseeable future. I might be more excited than they are. :-)

Lisa_Gibson said...

Lots of awesome happenings! thanks for sharing with us. :) You know all my stuff going down. lol Talk to you later.

Hannah said...

I finished my first novel last night. Excitement but mostly, I'm really really tired. 13 straight hours of sitting in front of the computer, not good for the back.

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