Kidlit Happy Hour

Ep 26: Theme: Minh Lê on Burying Telephone Wires and Leaving Space for Connection

Highlights from this episode include:
Starting with a story and discovering theme along the way
Propping up a story with telephone poles and burying the wires in between
Leaving space for readers to lean in and discover things for themselves
Minh Lê is the award-winning author of household favorites Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), Real to Me, The Blur, Lift (an Eisner Award nominee). He also writes popular middle grade graphic novels, including Green Lantern books and Enlighten Me. He is also a has been a contributor to a number of national publications including the New York Times, The Horn Book, HuffPost, NPR, Book Riot, and Reading Rainbow, and was until very recently, on the Board of We Need Diverse Books. He's also on the faculty of the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
IG: @bottomshelfbks

Ep 25: Theme: Laurel Snyder on Maintaining an 8 year-old Brain and Creating in the Face of Capitalism

We're thrilled to introduce our first guest of Season 2, the brilliant author Laurel Snyder. Highlights in this episode include:
Theme bumping against character, setting, plot and more in order to find its path
Writing from the heart in a capitalist system
Writing like a cook, not a baker
Why the outline changes the minute she starts writing
The realities of loving, and envying!, authors like Kate Messner
Episode links:
Laurel's episode on the Commonplace Podcast with Rachel Zucker
The Ezra Klein Show podcast episode with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy
 
Laurel Snyder is the beloved author of many picture books and novels for children, including National Book Award nominee Orphan Island, the Geisel Award winner Charlie & Mouse, and the Sydney Taylor Award winner The Longest Night. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program. She lives in Atlanta with her family and can be found online at laurelsnyder.com.
IG: @ohmylorelai
 

Ep 24: We're back! Caroline and Joanna Kick off Season 2

In which we share ways we've taken our KLHH guests' advice to live life as inspiration for craft, and attempt to buckle down for this upcoming year - because the year actually follows the academic calendar, right?
We've got things cooking for you this season, and we hope we can find ways to connect with our listeners more. One way you can do that is by dropping your questions for upcoming guests on our KidlitHappy Hour IG! We're excited to be back for Season 2 - we've already got some gems ready for you! 
 
 

Ep. 23: Reflections: Joanna and Caroline on Taking Leaps That Make No Sense and Our Favorite Moments From This Past Year

It’s our final episode of the inaugural season of Kidlit Happy Hour!!! Join us as we surprise one another with favorite moments from each episode, reflect on the season, and talk through where we’re going from here.
 
We will officially be back in August with our second season that is PACKED TO THE BRIM with brilliant minds across kidlit. In the meantime, be sure to follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen and catch up on any episodes you missed!

Ep. 22: Finding Audience: Claribel A. Ortega on Cultivating Real Community and No "Little Book Energy"

Highlights from our conversation with NYTimes bestselling and award-winning author Claribel A. Ortega:
The #1 way to connect to your audience
Claribel's tried and true mantra in publishing
Risks and benefits of sharing your writing journey online
Why writing your interests into your stories is a smart bet
The joys of trolling (not the kind you may be thinking) and why she loves receiving "hate mail" from readers 
The brilliant approach to making self-promo work for you
Why supporting the writing community is everything, and focusing on online conversation vs. discourse
Ways to cultivate in-person community 
What it's like drafting in Windings 3...
 
New York Times Bestselling and award-winning author, Claribel A. Ortega is a former reporter who writes middle-grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she's not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she’s co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club. Claribel is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America and Deadline. Claribel’s NYT Bestselling debut middle grade novel Ghost Squad is being made into a feature film. Her latest book Witchlings (Scholastic) was an Instant NYT and #1 Indie Bestseller. Her graphic novel Frizzy with Rose Bousamra was winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children's Text and an Indie Bestseller. 
 
Instagram, X and Tiktok @Claribel_Ortega
Twitch @radbunnie
Website at claribelortega.com

Ep. 21 Finding Audience: Emily Lyman on Reframing Self-promo and Why Good Marketing is Storytelling

Some highlights from our conversation with marketing guru Emily Lyman:
 
Reframing self-promotion as a celebration with your community
Individuals understand their “brand”
Good marketing IS storytelling
Why sharing your values, even if controversial, generates more loyal connections and community
Empathetic marketing
 
Emily spent nearly a decade working in-house with global publishers such as Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster managing both corporate and title marketing initiatives. Emily is now the CEO and Founder of Branch and Bramble, a digital marketing company. As an award-winning data artist, Emily specializes in blending data with heart and values to create meaningful audience connections for brand partners which include Patagonia, Paramount, and Penguin Random House. She's worked with companies with household names to individual authors just trying to get their books out in the world. She also runs the Mountain Brook Inn in the Catskills in upstate New York.
 
Branch and Bramble
Book influencer guide
IG @emilylyman
LinkedIn @Emily Lyman

Ep. 20: Finding Audience: Cynthia Leitich Smith on Story as a Circle and Making Magic Out of Nothing

Here are select highlights from our conversation with NYtimes bestselling, award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith:
 
Story as a circle, gathering, and communal effort
Figuring out where your voice can best serve and where your heart beats with hope
Building on “and” instead of “vs”
Inviting people into the conversation AND being a part of the conversation
Social media dynamics as both tricky and powerful
Approaches to book promotion that start locally
How we can never surrender progress made by generations before
Only asking kids to take on battles we’re willing to engage in ourselves 
 
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) is a NYTimes bestseller, 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Her titles include HEARTS UNBROKEN, which won an American Indian Youth Literature Award, the anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED, an Indigenous PETER PAN retelling titled SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, HARVEST HOUSE, which is one of five Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel, and—the BLUE STARS series, also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami. Cynthia looks forward to ON A WING AND A TEAR for middle graders. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperChildren’s.
 
Website: https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/
IG: @cynthialeitichsmith

Ep. 19: Polishing Story: Tavita Pritchard on Trusting the Process and Letting 5-Year-Olds Feel Their Feelings

Highlights from our conversation with football coach Tavita Pritchard:
 
Centering relationships over x’s and o’s
How who you are shows up on the tape
How embracing his family history guides his coaching style
Believing in your process instead of over-indexing on an individual result
Connections between coaching and the writing process
 
Pritchard played quarterback at Stanford University from 2006-09 and joined the coaching staff in 2010. He worked his way from a graduate assistant, to defensive assistant, to running backs coach, to wide receivers coach, to quarterbacks coach, and ultimately assumed the role of offensive coordinator from 2018-22. During Pritchard’s time at Stanford, the team won three Pac-12 titles and two Rose Bowl championships. Pritchard coached a range of remarkable future NFL players, including QB Kevin Hogan, a fifth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs, who led the team to the 2015 Pac-12 title and a Rose Bowl win. Pritchard is now in his second year as the Quarterbacks Coach for the NFL’s Washington Commanders. He lives with his wife Caroline Kusin Pritchard (oh, hey!!!) and four kids in Oakton, Virginia.

Ep. 18: Polishing Story: Andrea Davis Pinkney on Screaming on the Cyclone and Our Page One Pact

Highlights from our conversation with Andrea Davis Pinkney:
 
- Why riding the Coney Island cyclone is one of the earliest steps to polishing a manuscript
- Relying on an inner circle that we trust with our unpolished work
- Physically dIsmatling a piece and then stitching it back together
- Making homemade audio book read alouds as part of the revision process
- The "page one pact" and “hook, pull, hold"
- How to push part deluding ourselves that we've done our best work
- Deconstructing the greats to find inspiration
 
Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than 50 books for children and adults.  Her numerous awards including multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards, the Boston Globe—Horn Book Honor, and the Parenting Publications gold medal, among other citations. She is a four-time NAACP Image Award nominee, recipient of both the Regina Medal and the Arbuthnot Honor Awar for her singular body of work and distinguished contribution to the field of literature. She's been named one of the “The 25 Most Influential People in Our Children’s Lives” by Children’s Health magazine, is among The Network Journal’s “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business,” and is one the “50 Over 50 Extraordinary Women” and “Women Who Light up the Arts Scene” noted by Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day magazines. Andrea lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband.

Ep 17: Polishing Story: Lil Miss Hot Mess on Doing Nails, Dolly Parton, and Killing Our Darlings

Highlights from this episode with Lil Miss Hot Mess include:
Why nail polish is like writing a book
Writing for kids through the lens of performance arts
Why theater kids run the world
Lil Miss Hot Mess is a drag queen, activist, and children’s book author, known for her work with the #MyNameIs campaign and Drag Queen Story Hour. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live as a backup dancer for Katy Perry with a group of drag and ballroom performers. She is also a university professor with a PhD from NYU.
IG: @lilmisshotmess