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On Friday, August 3, 2007, the 36th Annual Summer Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children opened to the second largest crowd in the history of the conference. The 964 attendees representing 12 countries and 44 states found themselves invited to explore the terrain of children's book writing and illustrating.
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| Walter Dean Myers |
The award-winning author Walter Dean Myers discussed his passion for detail and not just giving the facts. A reader is not going to care about a fictional character without the details that make that him/her seem real. For Myers these details come from exploring the internal landscape of the character.
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Peter
Brown |
For author/illustrator Peter Brown the detail is in his illustrations. He puts much of the story into his artwork. On the first reading, the pictures may look simple, but on subsequent readings the reader will find more there. Brown admits that he has stumbled along in his journey from art school to graphic design to animation to children's books, but he did his best and things have worked out.
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Emma
Dryden |
Editor Emma Dryden
reminded attendees that children are often stumbling along and stories
can help them make sense of the world -- help them journey from the
darkness into the light. However, the stories need to be for today's
media-rich world where children multitask and are technologically literate.
This may mean that writers and illustrators will have to sail away from
their own safe harbors into uncharted waters,
perhaps by telling nonlinear, multilevel stories or by working on a
graphic novel.
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With Lin Oliver moderating, Art Director Elizabeth Parisi and Editors Arthur Levine, Mark McVeigh, and Krista Marino explored what feels like unsafe waters for many writers and illustrators--receiving professional criticism. The panel's advice is to be professional in return. Instead of reacting defensively, writers and illustrators should be willing to calmly discuss the work, listen with an open mind, and if something is not clear, ask for clarification.
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| Elizabeth Parisi | Mark McVeigh | |
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| Arthur Levine | Krista Marino | |
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Lin
Oliver |
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The
day ended with a wine and cheese party, the music of a Mongolian
throat singer, and an opportunity to view the Global Voices exhibit
of Mongolian children's books. Each year, SCBWI's Global Voices
program will bring translated works from another country to the
conference to increase attendees' exposure to international children's
literature. The translated works will also be brought to the attention
of the US Publishing community.
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©2007, Society
of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. All rights reserved.