The 2012 Crystal Kite Winner Profiles: USA MID-SOUTH'S Ruta Sepetys

In the USA Mid-South division (Kansas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Tennessee/Kentucky/Missouri), the 2012 Crystal Kite Member Choice Award winner was BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books.)

I had the opportunity to interview Ruta when it was announced that she'd won the Golden Kite award for fiction for BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY (you can read the full interview here) - and I contacted her now to hear her thoughts about winning the Crystal Kite Members Choice Award!  Here's what she shared:

To understand my excitement about The Crystal Kite Award you have to understand a bit about our Midsouth region. To put it simply...we're wild. Midsouth is wild with enthusiasm, wild with talent, wild with creativity, and if you ever have to step into battle, these are the people you want by your side. They are fearless and loyal. They talked me off the ledge when no one wanted BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY and I threatened to sell my soul to rock n' roll instead of writing. Our Midsouth RA, Genetta Adair, has been such an incredible mentor and team captain. She is full of sophistication and grace...and pretends that she doesn't hear us talking about the keg under our table each year at the Golden Kite luncheon. So to be honored by my Midsouth region is to be honored by family. And there is nothing more rewarding, more meaningful, than your family members lifting your chin and saying, "You did good, kid."

Well after that, I had to connect with Regional Advisor Genetta Adair to find out more about SCBWI Midsouth and Ruta.  Here's what Genetta wrote:

The Midsouth region includes Kentucky and Tennessee. In the last three years, our region has grown in both numbers of members and in numbers of events and activities. We currently have 380 members.

We host the Midsouth Fall Conference every September, and it has grown from about 110 attendees in 2008 with six faculty members to 160 attendees in 2011 with eleven faculty members. Since 2009, we have been blogging the Midsouth Fall Conference live.

In addition to the fall conference, we offer a few regional events for writers and illustrators throughout the year. Last year, we coordinated a Picture Book Workshop with four speakers, a Revision Workshop with an editor and author faculty, an Editors' Day with two editors, and numerous schmoozes. This year, we have already offered a Media Training Workshop for PAL members, a Master Class on Plot with editor Cheryl Klein, and many schmoozes. Next month, we will host an Illustrator Workshop with Laurent Linn and a Back-To-School Workshop on school presentations. In addition, the Midsouth hosts an SCBWI booth at the Southern Festival of Books every October in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ruta is a very active SCBWI member. She promotes SCBWI everywhere she goes, which is all over the country and throughout the world with publicity tours for BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, her Crystal Kite winning book (and Golden Kite, as well as numerous other awards). Ruta is a lovely person, always giving of herself and her time. She mentors writers in the Midsouth, offering encouragement and support. She was on faculty at the 2011 Midsouth Fall Conference and received rave reviews on the attendees' evaluation forms.

I first met Ruta at the 2006 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, and we hit it off from the start. She's kind, fun, and witty, and she charms everyone she meets. A group of us who met at that conference formed an online critique group for whole novels. Ruta's insights have proven spot-on, time after time. I helped critique BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY before it was acquired by Philomel, and it's always held a soft spot in my heart. I'm thrilled for Ruta's successes!

Ruta is an amazing author, always working to hone her craft, and devoted to writing the best possible manuscripts. I predict that all of her books will be best-sellers.

You can find out more about Ruta at her website here and there's a BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY website as well.


Learn more about SCBWI Midsouth here.

My thanks to Genetta for the info on SCBWI Midsouth and Cheers to Ruta on this latest win for her YA novel, BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Golden Kite Award Interviews: Ruta Sepetys (Winner for Fiction for "Between Shades Of Gray")

Ruta Sepetys won the 2012 Golden Kite Award for Fiction for her debut novel, "Between Shades Of Gray."

Lee:  "Between Shades of Gray" is your debut novel - and when a debut novelist gets huge awards and accolades for a work that is really brilliant, like yours, there's this myth of it being an "overnight success". Other writers can hear the news and feel, 'It's probably the first draft of the first book Ruta ever tried to write, and it came out perfect.' Is that your story?

Ruta:  Oh my gosh, no overnight success here and nothing was perfect. It took several years, dozens of drafts, 17 rounds of revision, many rejections. I lost an agent. I lost an editor. I lost my confidence. I considered flinging myself off of a building. My critique group talked me off the ledge. The pub date was moved. I got a new editor who requested difficult revisions. The little voice inside my head began to taunt me, saying I'd never be able to do it. Are you seeing a pattern? It was so damn hard.

Lee:  Five years ago, In 2007, you won the SCBWI Work-In-Progress grant - was that for "Between Shades of Gray?" How did the grant help?

Ruta:  Yes! It was for "Between Shades of Gray." It helped in so many ways. At the time, I was so discouraged and winning the grant gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, I didn't suck. Arthur Levine was one of the judges that year and he sent me a beautiful, congratulatory email. I still have it. That email and the grant gave me the courage and energy to finish the book. And then, after millions of revisions when my agent shopped the book, we were able to say that it had won the Work-In-Progress grant!

Lee:  There is so much description of Lina's art throughout the novel - was there ever discussion of making this an illustrated novel in some way?

Ruta:  Yes, some of the international publishers wanted to include illustrations in their versions of the book. But we found that everyone had different ideas of what Lina's art might look like so we decided to leave it up to the reader to imagine the art.

Lee:  Tackling a giant moment in history that no one really knows much about - Stalin's cleansing of the Baltic region - seems so overwhelming. How did you focus in on the story you wanted to tell, and find the balance of on the one hand creating characters people would love with on the other hand including all the challenges happening to those characters that mirror the true life horrors people experienced?

Ruta:  I chose to focus on the group of people who were deported to the Arctic because their experience was so harrowing and really emphasized the power of the human spirit to transcend occupation. Balancing the hope and horror was much more difficult. I owe that balance to my editor, Tamra Tuller at Philomel. When she got the book it was definitely heavy on the horror and light on the hope. Although I love dark stories that leave me sad for days, Tamra explained that most readers do not. She helped me level out some of the horror and amplify the elements of hope.

Lee:  I'm curious to find out more about how you struck a balance between Dark and Light, Despair and Hope, Evil and Love throughout the book. Not to spoil anything for those who haven't read it yet, but in some of the darkest moments, Lina finds a shred of light, and it lets us as readers breathe again. Tell us more about that.

Ruta:  When I interviewed survivors, they explained that they found hope in small things–a shiny rock, a pretty melody, or a funny story from home. Those small things created glimmers of light between endless bands of gray and sometimes gave them the will to fight for one more day of survival. They found beauty in each breath and somehow used their suffering as a spiritual teacher. That inspired me and I wanted to include those elements in the book. The Soviets took their flag, they took their language, they took their country, but they couldn't take their spirit.

Lee:  First page, first lines - yours is brilliant. Did the story always start in this way?

Ruta:  Thank you! Yes, the first line was always, "They took me in my nightgown." It was the first line I wrote and it stuck.

Here's the opening of "Between Shades Of Gray"

thieves and prostitutes 

1 

THEY TOOK ME IN MY NIGHTGOWN.

Thinking back, the signs were there--family photos burned in the fireplace, Mother sewing her best silver and jewelry into the lining of her coat late at night, and Papa not returning from work. My younger brother, Jonas, was asking questions. I asked questions, too, but perhaps I refused to acknowledge the signs. Only later did I realize that Mother and Father intended we escape. We did not escape.

We were taken. 

Lee:  Do you have hopes for this book in terms of how history is taught, or for it to be used in schools?

Ruta:  My dream is that teachers and librarians might use the book to open the door– to study Stalin and the other side of WWII.

Lee:  Can you tell us about what you're working on next?

Ruta:  My next novel, OUT OF THE EASY, is finished and will be published by Philomel in spring of 2013. It's set in post-war New Orleans in 1950 and follows the daughter of a French Quarter prostitute who is trying to get into a prestigious East Coast college but gets tangled in a murder investigation. It's sort of "Good Will Hunting" meets "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"...in a brothel. Ha! But seriously–it's about decisions and how we learn to fly when we're born with broken wings.

Lee:  What's the best piece of career advice you've received that you can share with us?

Ruta:  Several years ago at the SCBWI LA conference I attended a session with Walter Dean Myers. He shared two pieces of writing advice that I swear by: 1.) Don't wait for the muse to come. Sit down and immediately start writing. Write something, anything, even if it's crap. Just let the words sputter out and after several minutes of writing non-stop you'll find a groove. 2.) Don't be afraid to change gears and write something else. I was originally trying to sell a middle-grade mystery. After reading a few pages of "Between Shades of Gray" an agent told me to put aside the middle-grade book. There were a few editors that had requested the middle-grade novel. But the agent explained that my middle-grade novel was derivative but "Between Shades of Gray" showcased my authentic voice. I'm so glad I took the agent's advice!

Lee:  Congratulations on your award - it will be great to hear you speak at the Golden Kite Luncheon at this Summer's SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles.

Ruta:  Thank you so much, Lee! And thank you to everyone at SCBWI. Bottom line - I am a published author because of SCBWI!

You can find out more about Ruta and her books at her website here.

BREAKING NEWS: The 2012 Golden Kite Award Winners and the 2012 Sid Fleischman Award Winner!

The Golden Kite Awards are given each year to the most outstanding children’s books published during the previous year, and written or illustrated by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Four panels of three judges each (one panel for each category, consisting of author or illustrator members of SCBWI whose own works are that of the category being judged), award the titles they feel exhibit excellence in writing or illustration, and that genuinely appeal to the interests and concerns of children.

This year's winners (for books published in 2011) are...

 *drumroll*

The 2012 Golden Kite Award For Fiction goes to "Between Shades Of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel, Penguin Group USA)

Ruta Sepetys’ first novel, Between Shades of Gray tells the harrowing story of Lina, a young Lithuanian girl fighting for her life and the honor of her family during the Soviet cleansing of the Baltic region in 1941. The daughter of a Lithuanian refugee herself, Sepetys wrote this book in hopes of shedding light on the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives during this tragic time. Readers will be inspired by Lina’s strength of spirit and devotion to her family and moved by Sepetys’ heartfelt gift for storytelling.


The 2012 Golden Kite Award For Non-Fiction goes to "Amelia Lost: The Life And Disappearance Of Amelia Earhart" by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade, Random House)

Alternating chapters between Amelia’s childhood and her life as a flyer, Fleming captures the drama and detail (Amelia liked to eat tomato soup while flying) of Earhart’s life with suspense and enthusiasm. Maps, handwritten notes and photos further highlight the remarkable journey of one of America’s most celebrated women.


The 2012 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text goes to "Over And Under The Snow" by Kate Messner, Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal (Chronicle Books)

Exploring the enchanted lives of animals that survive winter underground, Kate Messner’s vivid imageries and delicate prose glide us along a whimsical journey of a father and son as they ski through the forest and discover the hidden, sometimes secret existence of the animals that inhabit the cold season.


The 2012 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration goes to "Balloons Over Broadway" by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin)

Using handmade toys and puppets, watercolor illustrations, and collages made from old books, found objects and fabrics, Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet’s charming images are fluently united to help tell the story of Tony Sarg, the original puppeteer of the Macy’s Day Parade.


The Golden Kite Awards will be presented to the winners on Sunday, August 5th at the Golden Kite Luncheon, the centerpiece event of SCBWI’s 41st Annual Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children, taking place August 3-6, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

Also presented at that Luncheon is The 2012 Sid Fleischman Award For Humor, for authors whose work exemplifies excellence in the genre of humor, a category so often overlooked by other award committees in children’s literature.

And the 2012 Sid Fleischman Award For Humor goes to "The Fourth Stall" by Chris Rylander (HarperCollins)

Imagination and quirk lend itself to this hilarious story of friendship and adventure as we follow two middle school boys who will stop at nothing to fix your problem and learn a few lessons along the way.


There are also four 2012 Golden Kite Honor Recipients:

For Fiction, "Words In The Dust" by Trent Reedy (Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic)

For Non-Fiction, "Mysterious Bones: The Story of Kennewick Man" by Katherine Kirkpatrick, Illustrated by Emma Stevenson (Holiday House)

For Picture Book Text: "These Hands" by Margaret H. Mason, Illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Houghton Mifflin Books For Children)

 For Picture Book Illustration: "Follow Me" By Tricia Tusa (Harcourt Children's Books)


Congratulations to all the winners!