In this week's episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Nova Ren Suma!

Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and co-edited the story & craft anthology Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City, and now lives in Philadelphia. Her new novel Wake the Wild Creatures is out now from Little, Brown.

Check out her website: novaren.com

Buy her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781616206727

Follow her on IG here: www.instagram.com/novaren

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In this week's episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Kate Messner. 

New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too. Kate's titles include both fiction and nonfiction; she writes award-winning picture books, easy readers, chapter book series, and novels for young readers. Her books are frequently nominated for state book award lists and have been honored with the E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Golden Kite and Crystal Kite Awards, Riverby Award for Natural History Writing, and Nerdy Book Club Awards. Kate's science themed books have also been selected as finalists for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize and named to the NSTA/CBC list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12.  Kate is a frequent speaker at conferences for writers and educators and visits schools all over the world to talk with students about books, writing, and the power of curiosity. 

Purchase her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-trouble-with-heroes-kate-messner/21573976?ean=9781547616398&next=t

Follow her on IG here: www.instagram.com/katemessner

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In this weeks episode we are joined by Barbara McClintock!

Barbara McClintock is an American illustrator and author of over 40 books for children. Her books have received numerous awards and citations, including five New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Awards, four ALA Notable Book Citations, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Award, a China Times Best Illustrated Books Award, and a British Fantasy Award. One of her books is a best-selling title in Japan.

Her artwork has been exhibited and is in the collections of libraries, museums and galleries around the world.

She has lectured about her work nationally and internationally, and is currently teaching classes on creating children’s books at Wesleyan University. She has served on the board of directors of the Eric Carle Museum, and chaired the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators.

Barbara is self-educated as an illustrator, learning by studying and copying artwork from books checked out of public libraries.

Originally from New Jersey and North Dakota, she now resides in northeastern CT with her partner, the illustrator David Johnson, and their three overly-helpful cats.

Buy her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781534418509

Follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/barbaramcclintockart/

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This week we are joined by author Kyle Lukoff and illustrator Levi Hastings! 

From Newbery Honor and Stonewall Book Award–winning author Kyle Lukoff and celebrated picture book illustrator Levi Hastings comes an “approachable, engaging” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) picture book about how people found community in a time when they had to keep their true selves secret.

“Are you a friend of Dorothy?”

In a time when the LGBTQ+ community was forced to hide in the shadows, a woman named Dorothy helped her people find each other in the dark and celebrate themselves in the light.

But who was Dorothy? Was she from the neighborhood, someone’s wife, mother, or sister? Was she that clever writer, who threw parties where there were no rules about who you could and couldn’t dance with? Or was she a girl from Kansas, who dreamed of leaving her black-and-white, small-town life and finding a vibrant, colorful world that loved her?

Dorothy might have been all these things—because Dorothy, as known by the post-WWII queer community, wasn’t real. Still, she helped a community find connection and care amidst adversity.

Buy the book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781665931663

Follow Kyle Here: www.instagram.com/kylelukoffwrites

Follow Levi Here: https://www.instagram.com/levihastingsart/

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In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Donna Barba Higuera!

Donna grew up in Central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, rather than dealing with the regular dust devils, she preferred spending recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones as inspiration. ​

Donna's Middle Grade and Picture Books are about kids who find themselves in odd or scary situations.​ From language to cultural differences in being biracial life can become…complicated. So like Donna,  characters tackle more than just the bizarre things that happen to them in their lives. 

Donna likes to write about all things funny, but also sad, and creepy, and magical. If you like those things, she hopes you will read her books! 

​Donna lives in Washington State with her family, two dogs and a frog.

​Buy here latest novel:https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781646144129

And check out the rest of her books here: https://bookshop.org/contributors/donna-barba-higuera

Visit Donna's website here: https://www.dbhiguera.com/

Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/donnabarbahiguera/

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In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Maria van Lieshout!

Maria is a Dutch-American illustrator and graphic novelist.
She was born and raised near Amsterdam, and studied Visual Communications at George Washington University in DC. Maria has illustrated and written 15 picture books for kids. Her graphic novel Song of a Blackbird is inspired by historic events, including those that affected her own family, during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Maria lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their son.

Buy here latest novel: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781250869814

And check out the rest of her books here: https://bookshop.org/contributors/maria-van-lieshout

Visit Maria's website here: https://www.vanlieshoutstudio.com/

Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/vanlieshoutstudio/

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In this episode of the podcast we are joined by Maggie Tokuda-Hall!

Maggie Tokuda-Hall has an MFA in creative writing from USF, and BA in art from Scripps College. She’s the author of numerous award winning, best-selling children’s and young adult books including Love in the Library, The Mermaid the Witch and The Sea duology, Squad, and The Worst Ronin. She has been called “... one of the most unflinching voices in contemporary genre literature.”

Maggie is a founding member and national leader of Authors Against Book Bans. She is the co-host of the Failure to Adapt podcast. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, children, and objectively perfect dog. 

Buy Maggie's books here: https://bookshop.org/shop/MaggieTokudaHall

Check out her website here:

https://www.prettyokmaggie.com/

Follow her on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/maggietokudahall/

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In this episode we are joined by Erin Entrada Kelly!

Erin Entrada Kelly has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including the 2025 Newbery Medal for The First State of Being, 2018 Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe, a 2021 Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, the 2023 NAIBA Book of the Year Award for Those Kids From Fawn Creek, and 2017 APALA Award for The Land of Forgotten Girls, among many other honors. She is also a National Book Award Finalist and author/illustrator of Marisol Rainey and Felix Powell, stand-alone stories for younger readers. Her books are New York Times bestsellers.

Before becoming a children's author, Erin worked as a journalist and magazine editor in her home state of Louisiana. She received numerous awards from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing. She has published more than thirty short stories and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Philippines Free Press Award for Short Fiction.

Erin has a bachelor's degree in women's studies and liberal arts from McNeese State University and an MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Delaware and teaches in the MFAC program at Hamline University.

Buy Erin's books here: https://bookshop.org/contributors/erin-entrada-kelly  

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Listen In: conversation & cultivation, a writing program from award-winning authors Elana K. Arnold and Nina LaCour @elanakarnold @nina_lacour

Learn more at ninalacour.com

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In this episode we are joined by Neal Shusterman!

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award, Courage to Dream, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, the Unwind Dystology, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards, and the highly acclaimed novels, Dry, and Roxy which he co-wrote with his son, Jarrod   For his body of work, Neal won the 2024 Margaret A. Edwards Award, and the ALAN Lifetime Achievement Award. His novel, Unwind, has become part of the literary canon in many school districts across the country-and has won more than thirty domestic and international awards. Many of his novels are in development as TV series and movies.

Shusterman has also received awards from organizations such as the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, and has garnered a myriad of state and local awards across the country. His talents range from film directing, to writing music and stage plays, and has even tried his hand at creating games.

Shusterman has earned a reputation as a storyteller and dynamic speaker. As a speaker, he is in constant demand at schools and conferences. Degrees in both psychology and drama give him a unique approach to writing, and his novels always deal with topics that appeal to adults as well as teens, weaving true-to-life characters into sensitive and riveting issues, and binding it all together with a unique and entertaining sense of humor. Neal lives in Jacksonville, Florida, but spends much of his time traveling the world speaking, exploring, and signing books for readers. . Visit Neal at www.storyman.com, facebook.com/NealShusterman, and on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter @nealshusterman

Purchase his latest book, All Better Now here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781534432758

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Listen In: conversation & cultivation, a writing program from award-winning authors Elana K. Arnold and Nina LaCour

Learn more at ninalacour.com

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In this episode we are joined by Paul O. Zelinsky!

Paul O. Zelinsky grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, the son of a mathematics professor father and a medical illustrator mother. He drew compulsively from an early age, but did not know until college that this would be his career. As a Sophomore in Yale College he enrolled in a course on the history and practice of the picture book, co-taught by an English professor and Maurice Sendak. This experience inspired Paul to point himself in the direction of children's books. His first book appeared in 1978, since which time he has become recognized as one of the most inventive and critically successful artists in the field.

He now lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York. They have two grown daughters.

Among many other awards and prizes, he received the 1998 Caldecott Medal for his illustrated retelling of Rapunzel, as well as Caldecott Honors for three of his books: Hansel and Gretel (1985), Rumpelstiltskin (1987), and Swamp Angel (1995). In 2018, Paul was given the Carle Honor Award for Illustration.

Check out his books here: https://www.paulozelinsky.com/

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