Creative Gifts You Can Give Yourself In 2025: Community

It's December! Here's the first in a series of posts on creative gifts you might start thinking about giving yourself throughout the new year ahead.

Today's post is on community.

Writing, illustrating, and translating books for kids and teens is a very specific calling. As I've joked with some of my KidLit friends, it's hard for folks outside our industry to understand that sitting on the couch staring off into space is actually working. (It's an important part of the gig, dreaming and exploring the what ifs.)

So here's the thing: 

Where and when are you going to not just find, but be IN community this coming year? 

Meeting up with some of my KidLit author friends at the 2024 American Library Association conference, from left: Ann Suk Wang, Karol Silverstein, Paula Yoo, and me (Lee Wind) 

Social media can play a role. Bluesky is becoming very popular with KidLit creators, and community events like #kidlitchat have moved there. And at the same time, I would encourage you to recognize that true connection is often hard to achieve on social media platforms, and feeling connected -- that you have peeps, support, and understanding -- is the goal.

So here's how to take it further:

Are you able to go to an online or in-person retreat or conference? There's SCBWI and also Highlights Foundation and the Writing Barn and residencies you can apply for, along with free online writing meditations, and many more options to explore.

Is there a SCBWI local chapter/region nearby that you can get involved with? Are they hosting a mingle you can attend? An event you can volunteer to help out at? (Volunteering is a great way to find community.)

Do you have a critique group or accountability partner or just other folks you can reach out to who understand?

Do you have a group of KidLit friends? Set aside some time with them.

If you don't have a group of KidLit friends yet, how can you build some friendships? Even one person you can reach out to to share a phone call or a virtual cup of tea can make a huge difference in your feeling connected and plugged into a community that cares about you. A community where you belong.

Being in community is a great gift to give to your creativity (and yourself) in the year ahead!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Frankfurt Diaries: The Frankfurt Kids Conference, Part 1 - Guest Blog Series by Lawrence Schimel

At this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, I wound up moderating quite a few public events. Moderation is a special skill, requiring a solid knowledge of both the subject and speakers (or doing enough homework before the event) in order to be able to ask them relevant and leading questions, during the delicate balance of making sure every voice has a chance to shine (and also hitting the key highlights you want the session to address). It's a different skill than doing school visits or other public events with kids--one of the other things we creators wind up needing to learn that we may not have expected when we set out on the road to become book creators.

When Lee Wind saw an interview with me in Publishers Weekly a few weeks before the Buchmesse, talking about the Frankfurt Kids Conference, he wrote to ask me to blog about the sessions I would be moderating. While I was at first nervous (since I couldn't really take notes on what the speakers said during the session since I was busy juggling the balance of themes and speakers) in the end I decided that by doing so it would be another way to help make my speakers shine, for those who weren't able to be at the Book Fair this year, which is part of what I felt my role as the moderator entailed. 

First up, the very first day of the fair (and coincidentally my birthday!), I moderated the entire Frankfurt Kids Conference, which consisted of a keynote by Cornelia Funke, and then three sessions with three panelists each, followed by a networking session. This was the second time the Conference was held; I had also been asked to moderate it two years ago, when the theme was on diversity and inclusion, which included a keynote conversation with Peter Warwick, president and CEO of Scholastic, as well as sessions on disability, racial representation, and more, with many participants of Every Story Matters, a project funded by Creative Europe. 

Lawrence on stage and Cornelia Funke on screen at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, photo by Riky Stock.

This year's theme of "Paving the Way for the Future: Responsibility in Children's Publishing" was inspired by Cornelia Funke, who I interviewed as the opening keynote session. Alarmed at the rise of right wing extremisms and intolerances, Cornelia had spoken in the German newspaper Der Zeit, wondering "Are we telling the right stories?" During our talk, she modified her position to say that while, yes, it is important for creators to be writing/illustrating more inclusive stories, and even for sometimes other voices to be the ones to tell certain stories, the onus lies not just on creators but also on publishers, to be more active in supporting and nurturing these diverse and plural voices and stories.

Rather than just complain that something must be done, she has converted a farmhouse in Tuscany that she bought into a residence for creators, to help them have the space and time to write some of these necessary stories. She talked about how one such resident, the Ukrainian artist Oksana Bula, helped her see the Russian invasion from a new perspective, one she had lacked from just reading the news but not having any first-hand accounts.

In addition to this new residency program, Cornelia is thinking differently these days when she writes her own stories, which she hopes let children take "shelter" in her words. 

Cornelia ended the session encouraging everyone to not wait for someone else to step in and try and fix things, like a fairy godmother, but to try and do something wherever they were, no matter how small. 

That is the perfect note to end this entry on, and I hope all readers will put Cornelia's call to action into practice.

**

Lawrence Schimel is a multilingual author and literary translator, working primarily in and between Spanish and English. He has published over 130 books as an author, and has translated over 190 books. He has won a Crystal Kite twice, for his picture books Lucky Me, illustrated by Juan Camilo Mayorga (Orca) and Read a Book With Me, illustrated by Thiago Lopes (US: Beaming Books, Singapore: Epigram). His most recent children's book is HaiCuba/HaiKuba: Haikus about Cuba in Spanish and English, co-authored with Carlos Pintado, illustrated by Juan José Colsa (NorthSouth Books) which won a Eureka Honor from the California Reading Association and was chosen by the NYPL as a Best Books for Kids 2024.

Updates from the Offense Against Book Banning - We Are Stronger Than Censorship

Me (Lee Wind) wearing my STRONG LIKE A READER t-shirt at the beach with pride.

SCBWI is a partner of this cool program from the Independent Book Publishers Association in cooperation with EveryLibrary Institute, that aims to buy and donate two books for every one book challenge or ban.

As you consider the many worthy causes you might support this Giving Tuesday and holiday season, I wanted to share that We Are Stronger Than Censorship has reached two exciting milestones: 

1)

We've selected the full group of 20 books from independent publishers that will be purchased and donated—two books to offset every one book challenge or ban.

2)

We're buying our first 1,000 books to donate!

You can help us do so much more - please consider donating, and/or buying some STRONGER merch to look stylish while also contributing $16 to buy two books to offset one book challenge or ban.

Other ways to help that cost no money include:

• ordering these books from your local library,
• if you love them review them online,
• thank teachers and librarians in your community who are supporting the freedom to read, and
• spread the word!

Thank you!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

On Voice (Finding Your Middle Grade Voice, That Is)

Or, Tools to Help You Find Your Middle Grade Voice

By Mina Witteman

In my previous posts about writing in another language than your native tongue and about the art of translation, an important--if not the most important--part of writing kept speaking up: Voice. I shared how a changing the language I write in also changed my voice and the voices of my protagonists. Voice is the one thing that an editorial agent or an editor can't fix. It's yours and yours only. No one speaks like you, no one thinks like you, no one writes like you. And that goes for both the writer's voice and for the character's voices. And yet, voice is what agents and editors are predominantly looking for. 
 
In my long career as a writer of middle grade, an editor and a teacher of creative writing, I found that the middle-grade voice is one of the hardest to capture. There is always the risk of it sounding either too old or too young, or it's tinged with a message and/or morals, it falls flat or is too excited and with that it sounds unbelievable, unrelatable. But middle graders have an excellent phony detector, and they won't hesitate to put down a book when they experience the voice as phony. What can we do to strengthen our voices? Let me first say some things about middle graders. 

Middle Grade Life

Middle graders are 8- to 12-year-olds. By age 8 most children have moved from learning to read to reading to learn. Their language and literacy skills have improved, as have skills like comprehension and deduction, rational, logical thought and concrete thinking. They understand concepts of space, time and dimension. They use their personal experiences to understand the books they read and the conversations around them. Characters' internal conflicts are typical of what middle grade readers find in their lives. They can recognize the difference between behavior and intent, and they understand how their behavior affects others. They understand concepts of right and wrong. The rule-abiding traits of earlier childhood are cast aside: for this age group rules can be negotiated. 

Remembering Your Middle Grade Self

Remember me being flummoxed by being unable to nail my protagonist's Dutch middle grade voice in English? My completely unscientifically, unproven theory is that my middle grade memories that stood at the cradle of the Boreas stories were in Dutch. I think that if we can access those times when we ourselves were as old as our target group, we're on to something. Jack Gantos says in Dead End in Norvelt: "...we have to save the history we have. You never know what small bit of it might change your life---or change the whole world." Or a reader! 
 

So, who were you when you were in your middle grade years? What can you remember and how can you use these memories to help you find your middle grade voice? How can you access your childhood memories? Some of us have been writers from a very young age and kept dairies and journals. Perusing them is a surefire method to bring back memories, as they often not only give you the actual events but also your mindset at the time. That's exactly what we need to build our middle grade voice. Even if the recording seems merely factual, you can often glean the emotion behind it or, reading the memory, feelings will flood back in. That's also how Jack Gantos started. He was in sixth grade when he read his sister's diary. Arguably wrong, but very much in line with an 11- or 12-year-old. After reading, Gantos decided he could write better. He began collecting anecdotes he overheard at school. A favorite place of his was outside the teachers' lounge to listen to their lunchtime conversations. Many of these anecdotes are woven into his stories. 

Getting the Memories Out

In NPR's Morning Edition, host Rachel Martin and author Kwame Alexander talk about Where I'm From, a collection of poems by poet and children's author George Ella Lyon, that are based on her memories. In the interview, Kwame mentions that the poem is "often used as a jump-off for kids and adults to share their own remembrances, from family sayings to the smell that bring childhood to life. It's like a time capsule of memories." Kwame recites a stanza from "Where I'm From": 

            I'm from fudge and eyeglasses

                        from Imogene and Alafair. 

            I'm from the know-it-alls 

                        and the pass-it-ons

            from Perk up and Pipe down! 

            I'm from He restoreth my soul

                        with a cottonball lamb

                        and ten verses I can say myself

 

And then Kwame makes own lines:

            

            I am from words and art and books

            I am from discipline and hard work

                        the sound of coins in a jar.

I never kept a diary or journal, but I do have a wealth of memories stored in my head. In quietness, I can easily call them up and transport myself back to a boat during my first sailing lessons from my father; to the first day at a new school in the midst of a school year after moving to another town; in a tree hiding from my mother, reading a book and listening to chatterbox magpies; in the backyard and furious with my neighbor kid who whacked a magpie's nest with nestlings out of a tree to feed his ferrets. 
Just like Kwame uses George Ella Lyon's poem, these are deliberate attempts to recall experiences and emotions. Memories can also be triggered by our senses: you smell a scent and, right there and them, you're back in your grandmother's kitchen; you taste a madeleine dipped in tea, like Marcel, Proust's protagonist, and memories come flooding in; you hear a song and think of a lost love; you see a sunset and remember a day too short for all you had wanted to do; you feel a breeze and remember, like I do, the powerful feeling of freedom.

An Exercise

I am not necessarily interested in the memory itself, but I am interested in the emotion that was behind the experience, because that is what will color my middle grade voice and bring it to life. To get there I often write down a memory in first person and present tense, as if I am reliving the experience. Then I rewrite it in third person and past tense. That pushes me out of the story but preserves the emotions that I need to make my middle grade voice believable and relatable to my young readers. Try it! Write down a middle school memory in first person and present tense, drawing on all five senses. Rewrite the memory in third person and past tense, changing the name of the "I" and, if you can, the names of other characters, changing the setting. 

And, of course, Learn From the Pros!

Watch The Dumbest Boy in the World, a story by Jack Gantos, in which he delights us with one of his childhood memories in an absolutely fabulous middle grade voice. Analyze how he tells his story. What do you think he left in? What do you think he left out? Think about what the story would be if told from Jack's sister's point of view? Or his mother's point of view?

 
And check out Kwame Alexander as he talks about inserting a difficult word into his middle grade novel in verse The Crossover without halting the story. This is a way, of course, for Kwame to challenge his young readers, but by doing so, he deftly meshes his voice with his character's voice, and we learn both what makes Kwame tick and what makes his protagonist tick, giving both that so very specific voice middle grade readers love to hear. 

 
And that's a wrap for this month. I hope these posts were helpful in your writing career. It was a great honor to be Lee's co-blogger this month and to connect with so many of my writer and illustrator friends. Keep up the good work. Keep writing! Keep illustrating! Bring your stories into the world. We need them! Your readers need them!

Mina Witteman is a Dutch published author, who writes in English and Dutch. In The Netherlands, she has seven middle grade novels out, a Little Golden Book, and some forty short stories in children's magazines and read-aloud anthologies. Her middle grade Boreas en de zeven zeeën (Boreas and the Seven Seas) was a focus title for the 2019 Dutch National Children's Book Week, an honor it shares with the Dutch version of Kate DiCamillo's Raymie Nightingale. In 2022, the same book came out in an educational edition aimed at reluctant readers. Mina lives in hills of North Berkeley, California, and when she looks out the window of her little redwood shoebox, it's like she steps into a painting by Rousseau.

What To Do When Your Book Is Not On The "Best of" List

As the end of 2024 approaches, it is the start of the season for "best of" children's book lists. I just saw one a few days ago that listed over 100 "best" children's books, and not one of my three 2024 releases was included. 

I was pretty disappointed, but processing my thoughts and emotions about it helped. In case you also don't find your book on a "best of" X, Y, Z list when you put your heart and soul into making it amazing, here's some things to consider:

1)
It's not YOU that didn't make the list. Your BOOK didn't make the list. This is not a judgment about you as a creator. If you can, try to take your ego out of this.

2)
Lists and awards are inherently subjective. In this case, other books rose to the list-maker's attention or delight. That doesn't mean they didn't enjoy your book, or that your book doesn't warrant praise too. It's completely possible given how many books are published each year that they haven't even seen your book yet, but they had to finalize their choices.

3)
It is okay to wish your book had been included, or won the award, or gotten the accolade. But note there is a difference between being jealous (kind of wishing it was your book and not someone else's book getting all the attention - like you would take it away from them if you could) and wistfulness (thinking it would have been great if your book had gotten attention as well.) We don't need to tear others down to feel good about ourselves.

4)
Your book probably has gotten some kind attention: A nice review, a reader who reached out with thanks, a great blurb from a colleague, and/or some other distinction. Enjoy that. Put it in your email signature. And recognize that there are probably folks whose book didn't get what your book did. In yoga, there's an expression about keeping your eye on your own mat, which means not comparing how you're doing with everyone else. You'll enjoy this KidLit journey more if you can avoid comparing your journey to other creators' journeys.

5)
Be kind to yourself. Not having your book included is disappointing, but your book out in the world can still touch hearts and minds and make an impact for the good. Not being on that list doesn't take anything away from the value of your book.

6)
There are probably some really good books on the list. Read one or two, just because it's great to know about other good books.

7)
Cheer your fellow KidLit creators on - whether their book is on the list or not. We're all in this together!

I hope that helps.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

On Translation

Or when you realize that writing sometimes is not just writing... 

By Mina Witteman

Translation

Last week, I wrote about writing in another language than your native tongue. The challenges of doing so can be daunting, but, for me, the joys of playing with new words, of exploring new grammar and spelling rules, of finding a new voice make an exciting novel world. 

Translation is a whole different tale. Since few acquiring editors in the US, where I settled more than eight years ago, read Dutch, I started helping my Dutch publisher by translating excerpts of my middle grade novels into English for them to offer at international book fairs. The relative ease with which I wrote in English completely disappeared when I tried to translate my own work. It seemed impossible to nail my protagonist's Dutch voice in English. I quickly realized translation was a whole different form of art. How is that, you ask yourself? I have just the right person for us to shed some light on this. 

Let's Hop Over to Amsterdam

And hear what a professional translator has to say! Laura Watkinson translates from Dutch, German and Italian into English. Her translations have won many, many awards and honors. Laura was born in Britain and has lived and worked in the Netherlands for over twenty years. Laura was the founder of SCBWI The Netherlands (now SCBWI Benelux). Hi Laura, good to have you here! 

LW: Hi, Mina! Good to be here.

 

MW: My first question: How did you become a translator? And what is it that pulls you to the art of translation and to languages in general?

LW: I’ve always been fascinated by languages, ever since I discovered as a little girl that there were other languages out there, not just English. My mom had a dictionary with a list of foreign expressions in the back, and I remember trying to pronounce them when I was about seven years old. I focused on languages at school and university, so translation was a natural step for me. It helps that I also love reading books and experiencing different countries. Translation is the perfect portable career.

 

MW: Perhaps a silly question, but how important is reading across borders? 

LW: What better way to find out about how other people and cultures tick? Reading about others’ lives helps us to develop empathy and understanding. Reading stories that originated in other cultures reminds us that there’s more going on in the world than what’s happening in our own little corner. Translation also gives us more stories and different voices. Reading across borders is of vital importance today, just as it has always been. What I’m saying here might sound like clichéd, but that’s because it’s so true.

 

MW: A study of the Index Translationum, the Unesco-managed database of translations from a diverse array of literary, academic and popular genres, shows us that over the period 1979-2007 more than half of the translations had English as source language. Next were French, German and Russian with, respectively, 10%, 9% and 5%, followed by Italian, Spanish and Swedish, each with 1 to 3%. All other source languages, including world languages like Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese, represented less than 1% of the international world of translations. It shows that translations from the English are dominant. It also shows that it’s probably hard to get books translated from the more peripheral source languages. Can you shed light on how books get chosen for translation? Is there anything a writer can do to advance their chances?

LW: My experience of the process of choosing books for translation has largely involved publishers and book fairs. The most important book fair for children’s book is held in Bologna, Italy, every year. Publishers from all over the world attend, with the aim of buying and selling rights. A publisher who’s selling rights for a book that’s not in English will typically take along some publicity material and an excerpt of the book translated into English, as English is the closest thing to a common language for most publishers. That package will be presented to potential buyers from all kinds of different countries during meetings at the fair, and with luck the book will make its way from there into various other language territories.

It can help if you’re writing in a language that has funding available for translation costs. As an author, it’s worth checking that your publisher is aware of any such grants and subsidies, so that they can use that information as part of their sales pitch.

            The books that have had a lot of buzz in their home countries are often the ones that are most likely to sell to foreign publishers. The publishers keep a record of positive reviews and pull positive quotes for translation, so that potential buyers can see that the book has already had a good reception at home.

            Writers and translators sometimes attend book fairs too, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a meeting with publishers. For me, it’s more about the atmosphere and the chance conversations (and gelato) that you have with fellow publishing professionals.

The Art of Translation

MW: Let's explore some of the nitty-gritty of the art of translation and, specifically, the matter of my initial inability to nail the voice of my protagonist Boreas in English. What are your thoughts about finding the voices of the characters whose words, thoughts, and actions you translate? And how does the voice of the author relate to the voice of the translator?

LW: I think if the voice of the original character is strong, that will come through in the translation. When you’re reading, you enter into that world for a while and develop a feeling for the characters. It’s that feeling that you’re aiming to convey, so that the character has the same kind of impact in the translation as in the original. Sometimes that might mean shifting away from a closer translation, in order to create the same kind of impact.

 

MW: What is your process when you translate? Do you have a certain work order? Books and/or dictionaries that you can’t do without?

LW: My first draft is a ‘quick and dirty’ one, so that I know what’s in store for me. The second draft is where most of the work is done. If I spot certain challenges in the first draft, I already start turning them over and over inside my head and looking for solutions, which often arrive when I’m in the shower or when I can’t sleep in the middle of the night. After the second draft, the text is fairly tidy, but then I go through the book again and again, tweaking and polishing and sorting out the details. Sometimes publishers want an early peek at the first few pages of a translation, and that’s something that I find tricky to do, as my translations aren’t usually finished until the deadline, and there might be a few patches early on in the book that still need work even at a fairly late stage.

 

MW: As you know, I translated my novel from my native Dutch into English. As I described above, that was not the easiest task I set myself. Do you ever translate into other languages than your native English? If a writer wanted to do this, do you have any advice? 

LW: I’m full of admiration for people who can translate in both directions, but that’s not me. I only ever translate into English. It would feel like a different task to me if I had to translate in the other direction – and it wouldn’t be a fun one! I’m very envious of children who grow up in bilingual – and trilingual – families. What a blessing to have a sense of ease and proficiency with more than one language! 

I wouldn’t give advice to writers on this subject, though. I think it’s something you have to decide for yourself. Literary translators are writers, but it’s fair to say that not all writers can be – or want to be – translators.

I Want to Become a Translator. Where Do I Go?

MW: My final question is for all SCBWI-members out there who aspire to be a translator. Where and how can they best start? What is, in your view, absolutely necessary to become a good translator?

LW: I’d say that it’s important to explore the business first and to find a place for yourself there. Contact publishers and other professionals. Publishers may be looking for people to translate excerpts and publicity material. Some publishers have trusted readers who write reports on foreign-language books, and that can be a way to make contacts at publishing houses. Get in touch with funding organizations for your language combination and find out if they have any opportunities for emerging translators. Explore the world of literary magazines. Always make sure that you’re getting paid a fair rate for your work. Never translate an entire book unsolicited, in the hope that you might be lucky and find a publisher. That’s really unlikely. Organizations like the UK Society of Authors and the SCBWI can help with advice. Read books of the kind that you want to translate, in your source and your target languages, so that you keep up to date with what’s being published and the sort of language that you might want to use. Talk to other translators. They’re a good source of advice and opportunities, and you might be able to steer them in the right direction, too. Find kids’ books that you love – and you’ll always have fun!

MW: Thank you, Laura! That was a wonderful and very insightful conversation. I am tremendously looking forward to reading many more of your translations. All photos in this post are covers of some books Laura translated. Go check out them out! You want to know more about Laura and her life as a translator in Amsterdam? Follow her on Instagram. 

Some Very Cool Things a Book Trailer Can Do

With my third picture book coming out, it's been really interesting to see the things all three book trailers do:

They're each 60 seconds or less.

They all intrigue folks about the story.

Every one hints at the art.

They have music that speaks to the emotional tone of the book.

Fascinatingly, each one does some things the others don't.

My first picture book was illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, who created the amazing trailer for our picture book RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE (Levine Querido.)

This one made a thematic promise, visually hitting story beats of difference (one house lit up blue and white for Chanukah and all the rest red and green for Christmas), of challenge (the sound of breaking glass), and the hope of a community coming together (hundreds of houses lit up red and green AND blue and white.)

My second picture book, just out, was illustrated by Jieting Chen, who creating this gorgeous trailer for our picture book LOVE OF THE HALF-EATEN PEACH (Reycraft.)

This trailer vets the book with blurbs from trade reviews and a well-known and best-selling picture book author, building interest by up-front pitching the story's value from respected third parties.

My third picture book comes out April 2025, and the trailer just released! Illustrated by Kelly Mangan, the trailer for LIKE THAT ELEANOR (Cardinal Rule Press) takes this curiosity-building approach:

What's fascinating here is that this one is all about setting up the characters and the problem, and it teases readers to want to read the book to find out the solution. It becomes all about "what happens?"

I admit that these are a decidedly not random assortment of book trailers, but I hope you also found it fascinating. Three different picture books. Three different approaches to book trailers.

There's so much book trailers can do!

What are some of your favorite book trailers for picture books, and what do they do?

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

On Exophony

Or What Possesses a Writer to Write In a New Language?

By Mina Witteman

The Start of a Writing Career

My writing career started, in a way, before I could even write. Or read. My father was an architect, and he would often work on his designs at the kitchen table. I would join him at the table (on the table!) with my very own notebook. While he made his drawings and puzzled over windows and doors, rooms and walls, roofs and chimneys, and everything else an architect puzzles over, I would dream up stories of the people who were going to live in the home he was designing. I dream up what the inside of that home had to look like, what color the walls were, where the table and chairs had to go, what they needed in the kitchen, in the bedrooms, in the bathroom, and, most importantly, who these people were that were going to spend their lives in this new building. I would not only dream it all up, but I would also scribble it down in my notebook, the specs. It was my first foray in writing in a "new" language.

I never stopped writing. In high school, I'd grow bored quickly, but my school had the perfect antidote against (my!) boredom. If you were sent out of class, you had to report to the vice-principal and he would assign writing a two-page essay as punishment. When, after a few weeks of daily reporting to him, the vice-principal realized that what he thought was a corrective punishment, only delighted me to no end. He changed course and ordered me to write the essays in French, rather than Dutch, my native tongue. It didn't matter. I still loved it more than sitting in class and pretending to be engaged. Weeks later, he changed course again and ordered me to write the essays in German, then weeks after that I had to write them in English. That was my second foray in writing in a new language. I went on to have career at mostly English-speaking businesses. I studied the English language and obtained my proficiency in English at Cambridge University. 

So when, my career as a middle grade writer in The Netherlands, took off, I quickly realized that to break into US Publishing--ever the dreamer!--chances of having my work translated into English were very slim, because, you know, who speaks Dutch in the US publishing world? If I wanted this dream to come true, I had to write in English.

Writing In Not Your Native Tongue? 

Would that be too tall an order? I knew famous examples of exophonic writers. Kader Abdollah (pseudonym of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani) was born in Iran in 1954, where he graduated in 1977 from the University of Tehran with a degree in physics. Along the way, he had become politically active and in 1985 he had to flee the country. In 1988, Mr. Abdollah settled in The Netherlands as a political refugee. He taught himself the Dutch language by reading children's books and poetry, and he started writing stories in Dutch. His 1993 debut, De adelaars (Eagles), was awarded one of the most prestigious Dutch literary prizes. 

Vladimir Nabokov grew up in Russia and learned French and English from his governesses. He relocated to Europe but with the rise of Hitler, he and his wife realized they had to move further away and in 1940, the family emigrated to the US. Before that move, he had already finished his first English-language novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Nabokov does use many Russian and French words in his English prose. he uses many literary devices to make it easier for monolingual readers to understand his stories, often preparing the reader for a foreign word with typography, verbal warnings, semantic explanations, or even translations. Except for the use foreign words in his English novels, Nabokov never wrote in Russian again. 

And then, of course, there was Samuel Beckett, who one day halfway into a story decided that from that moment on he would write in French only. Beckett considered his more limited knowledge of the French language an advantage. It forced him to go straight to the core of a story. It kept him from fluffing up his prose. Beckett too never wrote in his native tongue again. 

Learning the Ropes

Though I know that these writers are decidedly out of my league, it did tell me that it could be done. I immersed myself in the English-speaking world, moving to San Francisco and later to Berkeley, and started writing in English. It's not always easy. I sometimes miss the ease of wordplay that I so like in Dutch. I often compare it to an illustrator who decides to work with a different medium. I have to work harder to find the right words, like an illustrator has to work to find the right strokes. I do not yet have that fingerspitzengefühl for the language that I have in my native Dutch. To build my vocabulary, the thesaurus is my best friend. I read English dictionaries and encyclopedias for pleasure. If I don't know a word, I look it up in an English dictionary rather than an English-Dutch one. And I read and read and read and read: fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines. Everything in English that I can get my hands on. I love the challenge. I love studying texts, dissect sentences, pore over grammar and syntax. I love seeing the progress I make. I love every time I realize that, slowly but surely, I am mastering the language, that I play with words again, that I am finally finding that fingerspitzengefühl. 

And You?

SCBWI is an international organization. We, its members, come from all corners of the world. We love writing in our native languages, but quite a few of us from outside the English-speaking world, dream of being published in the US too. No one can stop that dream but you. If you want to write in English, or in any other language that is not your native one, go for it. Kader Abdolah, Vladimir Nabokov and Samuel Beckett could do it. So can you! 

 

Mina Witteman is a Dutch published author, who writes in English and Dutch. She lives in Berkeley, California. In The Netherlands, she has seven middle grade novels out, a Little Golden Book, and some forty short stories in children's magazines and read-aloud anthologies. Her novel Boreas en de zeven zeeën (Boreas and the Seven Seas) was a focus title of the 2019 Dutch National Children's Book Week. An educational edition aimed at reluctant readers of the same book came out in 2022. 

Registration Is Now Open for the SCBWI Winter Virtual Conference: Feb 21-22, 2025!

If you can't attend the in-person SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2025 (info here), here's a great option*:

The SCBWI Winter 2025 Virtual Conference!

It may be virtual (meaning online) but it's packed with real goodness, including:

The Golden Kite Awards Ceremony and Afterparty

A panel on How to Make Your Manuscript or Portfolio Stand Out

Another panel on the Outlook for Children's Publishing for 2025

First Pages Panel

Creative Labs  (Picture Book Physicality; Unlocking Your Authentic Creative Voice; Illustrator Lab: Picture and Words - A Perfect Match) -- you can watch one live and watch the recordings of the others later!

Inspirational Talk from Illustrator Vanessa Brantley Newton

Another Inspirational Talke from Author Torrey Maldonado

Peer Critiques

Networking

and much more!

Check out the full schedule and register to join here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

*The in-person and virtual conferences feature different keynotes, panels, and creative labs, so you could even consider doing both!

On Book Festivals

At the Bay Area Book Festival

My name is Mina Witteman and I am a children's author from The Netherlands, living in Berkeley, California. In The Netherlands, I have seven middle grade novels out, a Little Golden Book, and some forty short stories in magazines and anthologies. I'm honored to join the SCBWI blog for this month and to share some of my little corner of the children's book world. In this week's blog post I look forward to lifting a corner of the veil that covers book festivals for you. 

Because we are book people and we love everything books, from writing and illustrating to browsing bookstores to find old and new books, to celebrate visiting authors and illustrators, admire covers, feel the paper, and lose ourselves in words and pictures on the page. One of my absolute favorite pastimes is roaming book festivals, from small and delightfully intimate local gatherings where you can meet and greet, to elaborate multi-day festivals with thought-provoking panels and exciting interviews, with hundreds of our compadre authors and illustrators. Nothing beats the buzz of being surrounded by book people cheering each other on. And authors and illustrators love it when you are there to listen to their stories and to join in to celebrate their newest books.

For the longest time, I was just a visitor of these festivals. I’d listen to authors and illustrators, always getting inspired by their stories, and I would wait excitedly in sometimes sheer endless lines to get my personal copy of their newest book autographed. But ever since I debuted back in The Netherlands in 2015, I wondered: How do you get into these festivals? How do you get on stage? The answer to that question came when I joined the Bay Area Book Festival as their Youth Programmer. 

Founded in 2013 by Cherilyn Parsons, who learned the ropes at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Bay Area Book Festival features both adult andchildren’s authors and illustrators. It was one of the most joyful and fulfilling jobs I’ve had. I mean, spending your days reading all these wonderful book offerings by all my peers from here and there and everywhere! Fabulous, just fabulous!

I quickly learned the ropes from all my colleagues at the festival and am delighted to share some pointers on how you can become a featured author or illustrator:

1. Read the festival’s nomination guidelines to check if your genre and your target age group is featured. Does your book fit the festival? The Bay Area Book Festival, for instance, looks for work that offers broad audience appeal, shows a connection to conversations larger than ourselves, contributes to their objective of representing numerous themes and topics, connects with other speakers’ works as they consider the makeup of particular panels, and work that dares to push boundaries.
2. Your book has been published within 12 months of the festival’s opening date and, usually, it needs to be available for a festival’s bookseller partners to order via their customary distribution channels or directly via the publisher. Most festivals open for proposals six to nine months before the festival’s opening date. 
3. If the festival is not local, check if with your publisher if they have a travel budget (or count your own beans!). 

Author/Illustrator Mylo Freeman

And most of all: never despair! The Bay Area Book Festival says it most encouragingly: “Your work has merit and we are honored to be considered. Please remember that if your work is not selected, it may not have been selected for any number of reasons and we encourage you to submit nominations again next year.”

A first step toward being considered for a festival is to investigate the festivals around you. During my time as Youth Programmer for the Bay Area Book Festival, I connected with programmers of book festivals all over the world. We love putting the limelight on authors and illustrators, and are always delighted to hear from you, authors and illustrators. I have gathered some of the most esteemed festivals from across the world for you to check out:

USA

• Montclair Literary Festival – Montclair, NJ
• Bay Area Book Festival – Berkeley, CA
• LitQuake and KidQuake – San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles, CA

ASIA

• Hong Kong International Literary Festival – Hong Kong, China
• Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival – Nami Island, South Korea

EUROPE

• Flic Festival – Tantagora, Catalunya, Spain
• Norsk Litteraturfestival – Lillehammer, Norway
• Festivaletteratura – Mantova, Italy
• Children’s Book Island – Vilnius, Lithuania

SOUTH AMERICA

• Filbita – Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

That was all for this week! Stay tuned for next week's post about exophonic writers (like myself). Meanwhile, if you like to know more about me, find me on minawitteman.com or follow me on Instagram.