Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Listen to the Latest SCBWI Podcast: A Conversation with Lesléa Newman



Lesléa Newman is the multi award-winning author and poet of more than 70 books for readers of all ages. In this conversation with Theo Baker, Lesléa discusses her writing journey, her apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg, her creative process, and much more.

Listen to the episode trailer here.

Current SCBWI members can listen to the full episode here (log in first).

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Monday, June 29, 2020

Lesa Cline-Ransome: DW 2.4




Lesa Cline-Ransome: DW 2.4 Telling Their Stories: Writing Nonfiction Picture Book Biographies From Beginning to End



Telling Their Stores… at least, this was the original name for this workshop. Legendary, best-selling author Lesa Cline-Ransome announces minutes into Digital Workshop 2.4, that in light of new events, she has decided to change the name of her workshop to “Truth and the Picture Book Biography.” 





Lesa Cline-Ransome shows a slide of African Americans throughout history: “How many of these faces do you know?” she asks the audience. She encourages the audience to know, “Why do you write what you write?” This is something you should know before you start writing. In school, she received subtle messages that enslaved people were passive, that Black families were dysfunctional, Black people did not care about education, etc -- Lesa Cline-Ransome felt that these were narratives that needed to be re-written.








 “Backmatter helps young readers understand a background of historical and political context.” Backmatter can provide insight into the author’s personal connection to the story. Kids often find this helpful, as it provides context into why they should care more about the story being told. “This is what I find interesting, not what a kid would find interesting: I do my research through the lens of what a kid would find interesting.”  Kids love facts -- in all forms. In order to elevate a Lesa Cline-Ransome Nonfiction book to become a Lesa Cline-Ransome Nonfiction book, she asks herself a very important question:  “What made this person the person that they are?”


Until next Thursday, digital workshop viewers...

Avery 


(also known as @a.very.fast.reader on Instagram/@averyfastreader on Twitter!) 










Thursday, June 25, 2020

Nanette McGuinness talks with Emily Balistrieri, Translator of Andersen Award Winner Eiko Kadono

SCBWI member Emily Balistrieri is the translator from Japanese into English of Overlord, by Kugane Maruyama, and The Refugees’ Daughter, by Takuji Ichikawa, among other titles. His translation of Kiki’s Delivery Service will be released by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in July 2020, after author Eiko Kadono won the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award in Writing. Emily translates books and manga for children and adults, video games, and anime subtitles from Japanese into English, and his latest children’s translation is a bilingual storybook in the “Mashin Sentai Kiramager” universe published by Kodansha in Japan.

Emily Balistrieri


Nanetta McGinness (NM): I’ve read that you started out as a Russian major in college. What then drew you to Japanese and how did you decide to become a translator?

Emily Balistrieri (EB): Switching focus to Japanese was very dramatic because I canceled my study abroad in Russia. I still feel sad about that sometimes. But I just realized that if I was reading manga, into anime, obsessed with Haruki Murakami (this was in 2005ish), watching Takeshi Kitano films, listening to J-pop, playing Japanese video games, etc., there seemed to be a pretty clear path in Japanese, whereas I wasn’t sure what at the time what I would do with Russian. Thinking of it that way, it’s almost embarrassing—like picking which sport to play based on which local team gets more winning headlines. But I guess you have to pick somehow.

NM: I’m in awe of those proficient in a language that uses such a different character system, let alone such a fascinatingly different culture. The wonderful Cathy Hirano, who also works in this realm, has said that “translating between Japanese and English requires “fairly strenuous cultural and mental gymnastics.”* Can you talk about your experience and what it’s like translating from Japanese to English?

EB: I know that in some languages, the nitty-gritty of how well you can preserve the exact punctuation is a thing people consider. In Japanese, it can sometimes be, “Should these sentences even be in this order?” And there are plenty of instances when a question mark in Japanese is not a question mark in English.

As far as the characters go, it’s possible for people to be very creative with them. A great example is Hideo Furukawa’s new book where he takes the kanji for “forest” 森, which is made up of three “trees” 木, and adds three more 木 at the bottom (to make the pyramid shape bigger) for the title that is “pronounced” (and searchable as) おおきな森, “big forest”: the official English translation of the title is FFFFForesTTTT). One of my favorite parts of Japanese is rubi, characters placed over other (usually more complex) characters to show how to pronounce them. It gets interesting when, instead of writing the actual pronunciation, the author might put a word borrowed from another language, an explanation, or other somehow relevant text. In The Saga of Tanya the Evil, author Carlo Zen uses rubi at one point to make a euphemistic conversation about torture explicit to the reader. So the writing system can be front and center at times, but usually it’s easier to deal with than the grammar, at least for me.

The subject-object-verb order of Japanese (“I from Japanese to English translate”) is pretty easy to get used to. It gets tougher when a rarely used phrase pops up—one that you probably studied for a test at some point, but see so infrequently in the wild that you can never remember it properly. Similarly challenging are archaic forms, which some use to create atmosphere in the same way you might find Shakespearian flourishes in English. More common, but often frustrating, are sentences that come with a ton of qualifiers before the subject; they can contain info that, at least to an English reader, seems totally off-topic in the paragraph or just feels super wordy compared to what is actually being said. On the other hand, sometimes the way writers are able to layer in details is impressive, but it can still be a challenge to replicate in English.

NM: Kiki’s Delivery Service is a beloved Miyazaki anime classic with millions of fans worldwide, and its author, Eiko Kadono, won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 2018. So it’s very exciting that the book that inspired Miyazaki will be back in print for English-language readers. What was it like to labor in the shadow of such an iconic work and by a lauded, living author?



EB: Honestly, I tried to just take it one page at a time (in the turn-of-phrase sense, not literally, haha) and capture the spirit as best I could. Kirkus Reviews was kind enough to call the translation “descriptive and whimsical,” but of course that’s all Eiko Kadono’s writing; if the English readers are as charmed as Japanese readers are, then I did my job right.

NM: I think I saw that Kiki’s Delivery Service is actually part of a series. Has there been any discussion about translating and publishing more of the series into English?

EB: Yes! There are six books in the main series and then two other volumes. There hasn’t been any discussion (at least not involving me) yet, but maybe if the first book does well, we’ll be able to continue? I sure hope so because a lot happens. Imagine if only Anne of Green Gables had been translated into Japanese and none of other volumes! (Anne is an extremely popular character in Japan; there is a classic animated TV series and even a prequel series made to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the first book's publication.)

NM: There are a number of differences between the Kiki’s Delivery Service film and the book—as generally happens when switching genres. Did you watch/rewatch the Miyazaki film when you were working on the translation? If you didn’t, it might be interesting to readers to hear why; if you did, could you talk about some of the differences between the book and the film?

EB: I deliberately avoided the movie (although I can still sing the English ending song from when I watched it as a kid), even in Japanese with no subtitles. Incidentally, I avoided the more recent live-action version, too. I didn’t want to be influenced by the way the characters were portrayed there, since this is specifically a translation of Kadono’s work.

Hayao Miyazaki kind of takes his inspiration and runs with it. Kadono has been quoted as saying that when she first saw the movie she was surprised how different it was. But she said she made sure before production started that he didn’t change the title or Kiki’s view of the world.**

NM: It’s always a fascinating process doing a retranslation.*** How did you prepare? Did you avoid looking at the first translation from 2003 so as not to be influenced, or did you read through it to know what you thought worked best? Were you able to have any contact with Lynne E. Riggs, the first translator, or with author Kadono?

EB: It was my first time translating it, so it never felt like a retranslation to me, even though that’s what it ends up as. I definitely avoided the previous translation because I wanted to come to the text completely fresh. A strange coincidence is that I have known Lynne Riggs for years because she is one of the founders of the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators. I knew she had translated Kiki, so I never imagined that I or anyone else would be doing it. I feel almost a bit guilty, but I try to think of it as a sort of torch-passing. I definitely look up to her as a wordsmith community organizer here in the Kanto region (I’m sure she wishes I had more energy to help). She and the other members of SWET have a huge wealth of expertise and experience between them, so their events can be really inspiring.

NM: You’re listed on the title page of the book as the translator: congratulations! As a translator, I know how rare it is for an American publisher to do this. How did that come about? Once you turned in your translation to Delacorte, did you have any input on revisions?

EB: Thanks! I think “name on the interior” is how Delacorte does it. I went ahead and asked if the cover was possible, but it wasn’t this time. Never hurts to ask! The editing process was a bit irregular because the editor who brought me on was different from the one I did the bulk of the work with (Alexandra, if you’re reading this, please don’t be a stranger!), who is different from the one who finished the project. So I essentially did two rounds with them, and I know they made some other adjustments as well. Still, I’m used to just crossing my fingers after I submit a manuscript, so it was nice to be able to have so much back-and-forth for a change. I’m excited to see the final version.

NM: What are you currently working on? Any dream projects or books you’d like to translate next?

EB: Overlord and The Saga of Tanya the Evil are both ongoing series, so I’m always working on those, although they’re not for kids. I am chipping away on a masterpiece of a YA science-fiction novel about a first crush by Tetsuya Sato called Syndrome (and I’m pitching it, too, so please get in touch if this sounds good—it’s fantastic).

Other than that, here’s something to look forward to: I’m working again for Delacorte, to publish Shaw Kuzki’s Soul Lanterns. The protagonist is a 12-year-old girl living in Hiroshima 25 years after the atomic bomb, and the story is about how she and her classmates wrap their head around the horrors of the bomb and war, in general, by connecting with the adults in their community who experienced it firsthand. Kuzki is a second-generation A-bomb survivor, herself, so she’s an important voice to amplify in English. I really hope it’ll be a book that kids can read and discuss at school.

Thank you very much!

 *“Catching up with Cathy Hirano,” SCBWI Japan Translation Group, May 14, 2011, https://ihatov.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/an-interview-with-cathy-hirano/ 

 ** In a Japanese-language interview she did after winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018, https://www.bookbang.jp/article/554311 

*** Kiki’s Delivery Service was first translated into English by Lynne E. Riggs in 2003 for Annick Press, with illustrations by Akiko Hayashi—nearly two decades after it was published in Japan.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 50 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, and German into English, including the well-known Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels. Two of her latest translations, Luisa: Now and Then (Humanoids, 2018) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (First Second, 2017) were chosen for YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens; Luisa: Now and Then was also named a 2019 Stonewall Honor Book and a 2020 GLLI YA Honor Book. Her most recent translations are Little Josephine: Memory in Pieces (Life Drawn, 2020), Super Sisters (Papercutz, 2020), and Undead Messiah #3 (TOKYOPOP, 2020).

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

SCBWI Announces 2020 Crystal Kite Winners

The winners of the 2020 Crystal Kite Awards have just been announced! Given to books in fifteen regions that represent excellence in the field of children’s literature, the Crystal Kites Awards are peer-selected, voted on by SCBWI members from local regions. Congratulations to the 2020 winners of this prestigious award and their wonderful books, proudly presented here by regional division.
Atlantic (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Wash DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland)
Australia, New Zealand
California, Hawaii
THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL by Stacey Heather Lee
Mid South Division (Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana)
POETREE by Shauna LaVoy Reynolds, illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani
Middle East, India, Asia
Mid West Division (Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio)
JUST LIKE RUBE GOLDBERG by Sarah Aronson, illustrated by Robert Neubecker
New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island)
South East Division (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama
THE BOY WHO GREW A FOREST: The True Story of Jadav Payeng by Sophia Gholz, illustrated by Kayla Harren
South West Division (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, southern Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico)
Texas, Oklahoma
HER OWN TWO FEET: A Rwandan Girl's Brave Fight to Walk by Meredith Davis and Rebeka Uwitonze
UK, Ireland
THE TIDE by Clare Welsh by Ashling Lindsay
Western Division (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota)

Monday, June 22, 2020

Digital Workshop 2.3: Beth Kephart



Digital Workshop 2.3: Beth Kephart
Writing Our Lives: From the Telling Detail to the Evocative Scene

 The first moment most of us become writers begins with a journal. Journal writing is thrust upon us in elementary school by English teachers or family members. Some of us -- as Beth Kephart show us -- choose to never stop collecting notebooks as the years go by. Beth Kephart published her first memoir 20 years ago; it was an honor recipient for the national book award. She teaches memoir writing at the University of Penn and specializes in writing authentically. 



Lin, showing her 6th grade diary, signed "Linda Oliver"

“As we turn into adults, we don’t necessarily remember our childhood selves for how we were,” Lin says, as she introduces Beth. “We remember us as sentimental versions of ourselves.” Therefore, we can turn to our childhood journals, and remember us for what we were -- instead of what we imagined ourselves to be. 







Beth immediately introduces a common feeling described when spoken around memoir-writing, which is how self-serving the genre tends to feel, when so much is happening in the world around us.


 “Do we have the right to write at this time? How can I matter at a time of necessary we?” 


Kephart then goes on to tell a moving anecdote about a time when agent, profusely begging Beth to write for teens, asked her, “what were you like as a teen?” She answered: “I was the girl who boys came to and asked how to get with the other, more popular girls.” This memory sparked her first novel, and the notion of what makes a truly, moving book: Does the writer feel in genuine possession of the story? 





“As you look through your old journals, honor your obsessions, honor your choices,” says Beth. “What were they then, what are they now?”

In keeping your reader’s attention, Beth explains that the most important factors are truth and a sense of discovery. It is important to understand, when writing a memoir, that you will never own the story in its entirety; the story also belongs to the others in it. 







“If all you’re doing is piling a report of what happened in your life, you aren't writing a memoir. It needs to be motivated by a desire to connect yourself to the greater world,” she says. “When the author writes in the active voice of discovering the story, then you are discovering it together, with the reader… this helps the reader stay with you and pay attention.”


Until next time, for Lesa Cline-Ransome's workshop! 

(Follow me on IG for book reviews & book-talk @a.very.fast.reader) 

Avery :) 






Thursday, June 18, 2020

Dahlia Adler Offers Great Advice in "So You Want to Edit a YA Anthology?"

This article, So You Want to Edit a YA Anthology? was fascinating - smart, thoughtful, thorough. And while the original post is almost a year old, it still feels timely.

There's a discussion of the premise, the lineup, the numbers (how does the money work?), and so much more.



And the example pitch for "His Hideous Heart" - a YA anthology Dahlia edited which is now out! - pulls it all together and will be so helpful to anyone wanting to take this route.

Read the full piece here.

Thank you, Dahlia!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

5 Days Left to Submit Your Activity for Camp SCBWI

Camp SCBWI is a Digital Directory

Here's the scoop:
This summer, we’re bringing the outdoors inside with CAMP SCBWI, a digital directory of sleepaway camp activities for kiddos and adventurous adults. Inspired by our favorite childhood memories and movies, CAMP SCBWI will be a virtual hub where readers can stay active and connected to their favorite creators as they discover new ones along the way. In addition to the directory, we’ll also have a weekly Instagram Live activity, led by a fabulous PAL member, so readers from around the world can connect in real-time (thanks, technology!). Just because we’re staying inside doesn’t mean we’re not having fun!

Launching June 29 and spanning the entire month of July, CAMP SCBWI will feature activities in the following categories: nature & the outdoors, movement & sports, arts & crafts, science & tech, food & nutrition, theater & book readings, and bonfire activities. Each week will be themed and at the end of camp, we’ll gather together by sharing your favorite moments on our social media channels so be prepared to post those pictures and videos using the #CAMPSCBWI tag. (We’ll try not to cry at the farewell ceremony, but we can’t make any promises.)

PAL members will receive a submission form via email. Submit your activity before June 20 to be included in the directory!

CAMP SCBWI mushroomed from the incredible response SCBWI Connects received by members and readers alike. In response to school districts closing due to the pandemic, our PAL members came together to compile over 1,400 resources for students grades PreK-12. These resources have motivated and uplifted young readers everywhere, and affirmed the power of what we can do when our community comes together. Can we get a shoutout for children’s book creators? You are the best!

Though the memories may look different from our own, we hope CAMP SCBWI becomes the place where students can learn, play, and explore, if only for one month. The best part about it being digital? No one’s putting our twin mattress on the roof! We hope to see you all on the first day of camp, bright and early, with ghost stories and s’mores supplies in tow.
Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Friday, June 12, 2020

Digital Workshop 2.2: Vashti Harrison

Digital Workshop 2.2 Vashti Harrison: Character Building for Writers and Illustrators 






In the same week she landed five spots on the New York Times Bestseller List (yes, you read that right) - Vashti Harrison honored us with being our Digital Workshop guest for slate # 2.2. She is an SCBWI success story -- after winning the DRAWTHIS competition, and landing her illustrations on the front page of our website, an art director reached out to her for her first book. She’s been working nonstop ever since. 


“People are trying to teach themselves about race and Black history... and it can be exhausting,” Vashti says, opening the workshop. “I want to talk about what I love. Creating beautiful stories.” 








She describes visual storytelling as ways to use visual tools to service your stories. In other words: how to make your characters come to life; how to make your readers fall in love with your characters. Creating memorable characters come from the connection she finds with them. Would you want to hang out with them? Are they flawed? “When it comes to my books, the voice comes from really imagining they are real people. That is what makes them jump off the page.” Vashti showed viewers the way she experimented with light and color in Sulwe, careful to make sure that the color of the little girl’s skin was never taken away in proportion to the glow of the moonlight. 









She ends the workshop in a political and poignant way that viewers will never forget. Vashti walks us through the creative process behind Hair Love, written by Matthew Cherry. “There is a bias in the Black community that Black dads are absent; I very purposely wanted this dad to be hunky, masculine, younger… we wanted to break the bias.”


She shows us the different hair patterns, and textures of Black girl’s hair she chose, why she specifically made those choices, and why we need more books like this one. “I don’t just mean: here’s another book about racism or protesting… I mean here is just a book about a dad and his daughter. It’s crazy how this is revolutionary -- but it is!”


Hair can be political. Every choice is intentional. 



Until next Digital Workshop...!

Avery