Writing for Children and for Young Adults mini-conference, Saturday, September 22

The Summoning, a YA novel by

Kelley Armstrong, a New York Times #1

bestselling author and one of Brian's students

Writing for Children and for Young Adults

  the world’s hottest market

A mini-conference featuring three guest speakers:

  Kids Can Press senior editor Yasemin Uçar 

   Children’s author Kira Vermond

   and Young Adult author Tanaz Bhathena

Saturday, September 22, 2018

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Oakville Central Library, Auditorium

120 Navy Street Oakville, Ontario (Map here)

Note: This fall there will also be a Writing Kid Lit weekly class offered Friday afternoons in Toronto (see here), and a Writing Kid Lit Saturday workshop offered Oct 13 in Subury (see here).

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!

Note: Following the formal end of the workshop at about 3:45, Yasemin will stay around to chat with you one-on-one and Brian will stay till 4:45 to help with your opening pages.

Guest speaker Yasemin Uçar is a Senior Editor at Kids Can Press. Yasemin has been a children’s book editor for over two decades. She worked at Scholastic Canada before moving to London, UK, in 2001, where she worked as a Senior Editor at Piccadilly Press. In 2006, she moved back to Toronto and worked as a freelance editor for a number of years before joining Kids Can Press in 2012.

Yasemin has worked with many popular and award-winning authors and illustrators, including internationally bestselling author Louise Rennison, Ashley Spires, Chieri Uegaki and Caroline Adderson.

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 Nationl Post, Chatelaine, MoneySense, CBC, Owl, and others. Kira’s Why We Live Where We Live, 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 and Half-truths and Brazen Lies: An Honest Look at Lying. She’s currently working on two new books with Owlkids and Annick Press to be released next year. Kira will speak about writing nonfiction for kids.

Visit her website here.

Tanaz Bhathena was born in Mumbai and raised in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Toronto. She is the author of A Girl Like That (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2018) and The Beauty of the Moment, (forthcoming with FSG and Penguin Canada, Feb 2019).

Tanaz is also the winner of the 2009 MARTY for Emerging Literary Arts, a semi-finalist for the 2013 Jeffrey Archer Short Story Challenge and the Readers’ Choice pick for the 2015 U of T Magazine Short Story Contest. Her short stories have appeared in various journals, including Blackbird, Witness and Room Magazine.

Visit her website here.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor, author, 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. 

Read reviews of Brian’s classes and workshops here.

Fee: $49.56 + 13% hst = $55 paid in advance by mail or Interac
or $53.10 + 13% hst = $60 at the door

To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.