The inaugural Newton Children's Book Festival took place this past Saturday, December 14, 2024. Hundreds of families came out to the New Art Center in Newton, MA to meet over 60 children's book authors and illustrators.

The festival kicked off with a sold-out launch event on Monday, December 9 featuring New York Times bestselling author Tui T. Sutherland.

​I was honored to be Tui's conversation partner at the West Newton Cinema, and we had such a great time talking about fantasy, books, and reading, while answering questions from loads young Wings of Fire fans. 

The brainchild of literacy advocate, Mia Wenjen (Pragmatic Mom), the organizers pulled off a fabulous event. Newtonville Books was the official bookseller for the event and were so kind and wonderful. I had a great time talking with kids and parents and catching up (or meeting for the first time) with other local authors and kidlit creators. ​

I’ve teamed up with my fellow #22Debuts author K. Tempest Bradford to share two webinars for writers, both pre- and post-published. We both feel strongly that authors should have a web presence, even a basic one. We’ll give you the tools to create and maintain a website and a social media presence even if you aren’t tech-savvy or trained in digital marketing.

Last spring I was honored to be awarded the inaugural Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Manuscript Award. Given in partnership with SCBWI, the award is presented to the manuscript deemed best during the critique sessions at the conference and includes an all-inclusive trip to the annual SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles.

I arrived in Los Angeles full of expectation and more than a bit of worry. I had never been to the Summer Conference, but I had heard much about how wonderful and amazing it was. And big. This year’s conference hosted over 1,100 attendees!

This spring, I attended the Kweli Color of Children's Literature Conference for the third time. Kweli is a conference for writers and illustrators who identify as Indigenous or as people of color. It is organized by Kweli Journal and its founder Laura Pegram.

Everything about Kweli is joyous and rejuvenating. This year, I submitted a manuscript for critique and not only received wonderful feedback, but my manuscript was selected for the Kweli/SCBWI Emerging Talent Award. The award includes an all expenses paid scholarship to the 2019 SCBWI Summer Conference in LA! I'm honored to have been selected for this award and looking forward to learning at the summer conference in LA. 

Here is a blog post I wrote for Kweli about my conference experience on Craft, Community, and Love.