Garden Box Breakout Sessions
Welcome to the Garden Box, a cozy plot where support, resources, and friendships help every member flourish. It’s a space where we nurture growth, tend connections, and share the tools you need to thrive in your creative soil.
Our Garden Box Breakout Sessions are bursting with inspiration, featuring presentations from Illinois Published and Listed (PAL) members–our very own master gardeners! We are busy digging up this season's themes and PAL members, but you'll get to attend two Garden Box Breakout Sessions live, and have the recordings of all four for up to 30 days after the event!
Sessions take place on September 21st, 2025, at 1:45 PM CDT and 2:45 PM CDT.
1:45 PM Garden Box Sessions:
How to Create and Maintain an Author Website with Ann Zhao
Even in our social-media-dominated age, it's important for authors to have a centralized platform that anyone can access without needing to use a specific social media site. This workshop goes over the steps it takes to create a website and important content to include on it. We'll cover hosting platforms, design choices, media kits, and more.
Preparing the Soil for Your Story with Nicole M. Hewitt
Have you ever started a project unsure of exactly what type of book you want to write? What format should it be in? What age group are you writing for? What genre does it fit in? Sometimes getting started is the hardest part of writing. We'll discuss ways to brainstorm a new idea and figure out where it fits in the current market (without writing to the market). We'll also talk about ways to experiment with formatting, age ranges, styles and genres. Let's work together to unlock the potential of that new story idea!
2.45 PM Garden Box Sessions:
Planting Your Own Story with Independent Publishing with Laura Smetana
Are you curious about what it takes to plant your own story and help it bloom into a beautiful book? In this workshop author and illustrator Laura Smetana will discuss the steps involved in charting your own path in independent publishing, including working with editors, book designers, illustrators, marketing professionals, and others to make a high quality book that readers, teachers, and librarians will love and that you will be proud of sharing with the world.
Growing Characters that Reflect the World in Story & Art with Kelly Mangan
Attendees select one session during each block to attend on Zoom, and they will receive all four recordings to watch for 30 days after the event.
Garden Box Breakout Session Faculty
Nicole M. Hewitt
Nicole M. Hewitt is a middle grade author living in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, three grown kids, and two overly-enthusiastic pups. She hates to run, but she succeeded in finishing a marathon. (It was for a good cause!) She enjoys nature but doesn’t see nearly enough of it in Illinois, so her family travels as often as possible. She also loves to sing and can often be heard spontaneously composing incredibly profound songs about the fluffiest members of her family (the dogs, in case you weren’t sure). Her debut middle grade fantasy novel-in-verse, THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN released in January of 2025 and was chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
Kelly Mangan
Kelly Mangan is a queer, neurodiverse author and illustrator of picture books and middle grade stories. She is the illustrator of LIKE THAT ELEANOR (written by Lee Wind, published by Cardinal Rule Press), and the author of the novel MAEVE MULVANEY HAS HAD ENOUGH (Holiday House, 2025). While originally from the South, she now resides in Vermont with her partner and two kids.
Laura Smetana
Laura Smetana is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. She loves creating bright, joyful cut-paper watercolor collages inspired by nature. Her latest author-illustrated book, My Love for You Is Like the Night Sky, is the companion to her Kirkus-starred, My Love for You Is Like a Garden, which was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2023. She is also the author of Ice Cream with Grandpa: A Loving Story for Kids About Alzheimer's & Dementia (illustrated by Elisabete B. P. de Moraes), and Little Squiggle's Lake Adventure, which she co-authored with her son. When she isn’t writing or painting, Laura can be found inspiring kids to create their own books at school author visits, teaching collage art, stargazing, and spending time outdoors with her family. Laura lives in the Chicago suburbs and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Downers Grove Artists’ Guild, and The Morton Arboretum’s Nature Artists’ Guild.
Ann Zhao
Ann Zhao is the Indie-bestselling author of Dear Wendy and a contributor to the upcoming anthology Being Aro. When she’s not writing, she works in youth and teen services at a public library, where she’s always finding excuses to put her friends’ books on display. Born and raised in Illinois, she lived briefly in Massachusetts for college but now resides back in the Chicagoland area. Photo Credit: Emily Hou