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.