Grown-Up Things: On Adults and YA Fiction
A defense of adult readers of YA fiction along with a call for more diverse, rule-breaking, and intellectually challenging writing and subject matter.
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks Panel at BookCon
A report on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks panel and the multicultural small press panel at the 2014 BookCon in New York City.
The Perils of First-Hand Research
An illness likely contracted in the course of researching my next book prompts me to reflect on how realistic writers take risks in the service of authenticity.
Patricio Has Writer’s Block, But I Don’t: My Writing Process Blog Tour
My contribution to the My Writing Process Blog Tour, where I talk about the fun of revision and why I write about social and political struggles.
Some colophons from small and large presses, from left: Nortia Press, Delacorte, Royal Fireworks Press, HarperCollins, Curbstone Press (now part of Northwestern University Press), Nancy Paulsen Books (a Penguin Random House imprint), Cinco Puntos Press
It’s All Good! How You Can Create Diversity in Publishing
How parents and general readers can use their purchasing power to support diverse authors, alternative voices and a new generation of book-lovers.
Jane Kurtz Was Here…and There…and Everywhere
Author and teacher Jane Kurtz talks about her work in Ethiopia, her new novel Anna Was Here, and the relationship between writing and teaching.
Revisiting a Classic: Great Expectations
My thoughts on reading a classic, Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, as an adult and from the perspective of my novel's protagonist as well.
Bricksters have a lot of time to party, but they need to work too. Let's have them work for you!
An Economic Development Plan for Little Brick Township: The LEGO Book Launch
I can help you use the people of Little Brick Township, as well as the rest of my LEGO collection, to liven up your next book launch.
Just Write Two Pages
On a visit to a middle school in Philadelphia, I advise young writers to write very short stories that contain a beginning, a middle, and an end.