-Posted on: September 18, 2021
By Barbara Gregorich
During the 1980s and into the 1990s, I wrote educational materials: activity sheets, teacher guides, parent guides, flashcards, audio how-to instructions, and teacher guides and parent guides. At one point I was doing freelance work for educational …
-Posted on: July 15, 2021
By Keir Graff
Signing books at Anderson’s
Author’s note: At the beginning of the year, as I indulged in my annual ritual of setting more goals than I can possibly accomplish, I added a monthly “business meeting” to my
…
-Posted on: June 15, 2021
by Lisa Katzenberger
There is a certain feeling that goes along with sharing your stories with the world and asking someone to love your work. For me, it’s a mixture of thrill and fear, with a little nausea mixed in …
-Posted on: May 15, 2021
By Alice B. McGinty and Alan B. Havis
To go or not to go? That’s what we were wondering as last summer rolled in. We’d planned this tour well before the pandemic hit. Travel to the east coast and visit …
-Posted on: April 15, 2021
By Liesl Shurtliff
One afternoon in high school, I was trying to write a critical essay for my AP English class. I can’t remember the book I was supposed to be writing about, but it was most likely by a …
-Posted on: March 7, 2021
By Karla Clark
The amazing human brain is hardwired to communicate with stories. Storytelling runs deep in my blood. I come from Italian immigrants and all through my childhood we gathered on Sundays around my grandparents’ kitchen table in Rockford, …
-Posted on: February 13, 2021
By Ruth Spiro
I have a love/hate relationship with an iPhone app.
My daughters introduced me to Timehop, an app that links to any social media accounts where you post photos – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. When you open Timehop …
-Posted on: January 10, 2021
“And the Dish ran away with the Zoom.”
“Mommy did you mean Spoon?”
“Oh yes, Spoon!”
What a runaway year! It’s our inclination to lick a finger and turn the page on the previous year, revealing a blank and beautiful …
-Posted on: December 14, 2020
By Ronni Davis
When I started writing When the Stars Lead to You, I knew that I wanted my main character to be a biracial—specifically black and white—girl. After years of never seeing anyone who looked like me in …
-Posted on: November 13, 2020
By Joy Michael Ellison
I wrote my debut picture book Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made Lgbtq+ History for a simple reason: I wanted to see myself and my community …