CWILL BC/VPL Writing & Illustrating Kids’ Books 2016

 

(print-sized posters, and every size in between, are available for download here in colour and black and white)

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The annual CWILL BC/VPL Writing & Illustrating Kids’ Books panel is coming up on Monday February 29 , 2016 from 7:00pm – 8:30pm at the Vancouver Public Library Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms (the lower meeting rooms under the atrium in the main library branch in downtown Vancouver, 350 West Georgia Street).

Interested in writing or illustrating books for young readers? Join seven professional children’s authors and illustrators at this free public event to find out how they broke into this exciting and competitive field and how they built their careers. Audience members will have a chance to ask questions and get practical information on such topics as how to improve your writing, how to find a publisher and submit your work, what agents do, what to look for in a book contract and what the financial rewards are.

This is a great opportunity to learn about the children’s publishing industry from published authors and illustrators. And it’s a free event.

This year’s well-published and informative panelists are:

Award-winning author Pam Withers has written 17 bestselling adventure books for teens, as well as Jump Starting Boys: Help Your Reluctant Learner Find Success in School and Life. Pam is a mother as well as a former outdoor guide, journalist and editor.

Linda DeMeulemeester’s fantasy middle grade series Grim Hill has been translated into French, Spanish and Korean. Wandering Fox, an imprint of Heritage Books, is reissuing the bestselling series. The Secret of Grim Hill, first book and winner of the Silver Birch and the Canadian Toy Testing Best Books, launched in October.

Beryl Young is the author of five award-winning books for children. Her first book was published when she was 66 years old, and she has gone on to write fiction, non-fiction and picture books, winning the Silver Moonbeam and the Chocolate Lily awards in 2012.

Cynthia Heinrichs is the author of two books: “Mermaids,” a picture book about the diving women of South Korea, and “Under the Mound,” a novel for young adults set in 12th-century Scotland. She lives in Vancouver, BC, where she writes and tutors college students in academic writing.

Victoria Miles is the author of numerous books for children, including the award-winning Magnifico; Old Mother Bear; and the critically acclaimed Mimi Power and the I-don’t-know-what—a finalist in the 2013 BC Book Prizes, and the 2013/14 Red Cedar and 2014 Diamond Willow Awards.

Ellen Schwartz (moderator) is the award-winning author of 16 books for children, from picture books to early chapter books to teen novels and non-fiction. Ellen teaches writing for children at Douglas College. Her latest novel, The Case of the Missing Deed, won the Rocky Mountain Book Award.