 |
| The Calling a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong, New York Times #1 bestselling author and one of Brian's students |
Writing for Children &
for Young Adults ~ the world’s hottest market
See current listings for Writing Kid Lit weekly classes and Saturday workshops here. See Brian Henry's complete current schedule of classes and workshops here.
Offered in three locations:
Offered in three locations:
Saturday, April 2, 2016
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
If you want to write the next best-selling children’s books or just want to create stories for your own kids, this workshop is for you. Learn how to write stories kids and young adults will love and find out what you need to know to sell your book.
Special option: You may, but don't have to, bring 3 copies of the opening couple pages (first 500 words) of your children’s book or young adult novel (or 1,000 words if that will get you to the end of your picture book or to the end of your first chapter.) If you’re not currently working on a children’s story, don’t worry, we’ll get you started on the spot!
Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers and is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing Inc). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published.
 |
| Rachel Letofsky |
The Cooke Agency represents many national and international award-winning authors of quality fiction and nonfiction,
including John Irving, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, Catherine Gildiner, Mary Novik,
Nancy Richler, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Joyce Wayne. The Cooke Agency’s clients
are routinely long-listed, short-listed and awarded prizes for the high quality
of their work.
Rachel is actively seeking ground-breaking and
heart-breaking middle grade and young adult titles in all genres. She is drawn
to works with a whimsical nature or a grounded, gritty edge in equal measure,
though in either instance, unforgettable characters and original concepts are a
must.
She also has a natural soft-spot for exquisite
literary fiction. In nonfiction, Rachel is looking for narrative-driven memoirs
and anything quirky and life affirming. Rachel is particularly committed to
working with previously unpublished authors in a focused, collaborative and
hands-on manner.
Rachel's clients include middle
grade authors Nikki Vogel and Deirdre Baker, author of the beloved book, Becca at Sea,
published by Groundwood, and the young adult author Janice Lynn Mather, author
of Learning to Breathe, which was nominated for the
HaperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize. She also represents multiple
award-winning poet and novelist Méira Cook – whose new novel Night
Watching was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2015; Kim Gaal,
a fresh voice in urban fantasy from Australia, and Erin Frances Fisher, whose
short story “Girl” won this year’s RBC Bronwen Wallace award and is currently
available for free download from iTunes (you should read it!).
Fee: 40.71+ 13% hst = 46 paid in advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 at the door
Fee: 40.71+ 13% hst = 46 paid in advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 at the door
To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca
In
Guelph, on April 30, we will have three guest speakers: Yasemin Uçar, senior editor at Kids Can
Press, Jennifer Mook-Sang, author of the acclaimed middle grade novel Speechless, and Kira Vermond,
author of four nonfiction books for young readers.
 |
| Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison, one of the best-selling authors Yasemin Ucar has worked with. |
She moved back to Toronto in 2006 and worked as a
freelance editor for six years for several publishers, including Scholastic,
Second Story Press, Madison Press Books, and HarperCollins. She joined Kids Can
Press in 2012.
Yasemin has worked with many popular and
award-winning authors and illustrators, including international bestselling
author Louise Rennison, Barbara Coloroso, Anne Villeneuve, Pierre Pratt,
Caroline Adderson, and Ashley Spires.
Jennifer Mook-Sang is
as amazed as anyone to find she’s a published author. Her humorous middle grade
novel Speechless was
started in one of Brian Henry’s classes and was released by Scholastic in
September. Speechless is already a hit. The CBC has named it one of
the 75 best books published in 2015, and it’s a
finalist for the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award.
Also, Jennifer's first picture book will be arriving in September 2017. Captain Monty (working title) was
a finalist in the 2014 CANSCAIP/TWUC Writing for Children Competition and will
be published by Kids Can Press. (For information on this year’s CANSCAIP–Writers’ Union contest,
see here.)
At the workshop, Jennifer will speak about how she got her first book
published.
Kira Vermond, a Guelph-based freelance writer and children’s
non-fiction author who has penned over 1,500 articles and columns for the Globe and Mail, The National Post, Chatelaine, MoneySense, CBC,
Owl and others. Kira’s Why We Live Where We Live, recently won the prestigious 2015 Norma Fleck Award for
Canadian Children’s Non-fiction.
Kira is also the author of Growing Up, Inside and Out and The Secret
Life of Money: A kids’ guide to cash. Her
fourth book for young readers, Half-truths and Brazen Lies: An Honest Look at Lying, will hit shelves in April 2016. Kira
will speak about writing nonfiction for kids.
Fees:
45.13+ 13% hst = 51 paid in advance or 48.67 + 13% hst = 55 at
the door
To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca
 |
| Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn from Simon & Shuster in stores now |
His most recent novel for young adults, Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend, will be released in Canada, the United States and
Great Britain in March 2016.
His work for adults includes the human rights novels Burridge Unbound and Man of Bone,
which both won the Ottawa Book Award and were shortlisted for, respectively,
the Giller Prize and the Trillium Award. Since 2008, Alan has taught in the
prestigious MFA program in writing for children and young adults at the Vermont
College of Fine Arts, where he is currently faculty chair.
A past chair of The Writers' Union of Canada, he
has also been writer-in-the residence at the University of Ottawa, the
Vancouver International Writers Festival, and at Berton House in Dawson City,
Yukon. Alan was born and raised in Ottawa, where he still lives, but he has
also lived and worked in China and Indonesia, and spent most of the 1990s
writing on human rights issues for the Immigration and Refugee Board. He has an
MA in Creative Writing from the University of Windsor, where he studied under
Alistair MacLeod.
Fee: 40.71+ 13% hst = 46 paid in
advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 at the door
To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca
See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops, writing retreats, and creative
writing courses in Algonquin Park, Alton, Barrie, Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon,
Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener,
London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa,
Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto,
Windsor, Halton, Ingersoll, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York,
the GTA, Ontario and beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.