Meet Alex
Alex Aceves (she/her) is a Latine writer and editor originally from Mexico City and currently based in Brooklyn. She works as an editor at Holiday House, where she oversees the expansion of the Holiday House Spanish language publishing program while also acquiring YA and MG fiction and graphic novels for Holiday House's English language list. Alex was the 2015 Honor winner of Lee & Low's New Visions Award for previously unpublished YA fiction writers whose work centers characters from marginalized communities.
Sessions + Events
Critiques + Reviews
- Manuscript Critique - PB (Nonfiction PB only), MG, YA, Graphic Novel manuscript, Novels in Verse. Alex is not a good fit for historical fiction about WWII, or novels with animal narrators.
- Pitch Package Critique
- Graphic Novel Pitch
Beyond Words: Visual Rhetoric and the Graphic Novel Script - Breakout
Saturday, Sept 21st 11 am - 12 pm
Moore
Writing a graphic novel script is a delicate balancing act: you need to provide enough information and descriptive detail to guide the artist (whether that’s you or someone else) without overly art directing or placing too many limitations on the project’s artistic scope. In this session, we’ll discuss strategies for drafting a graphic novel script that informs (without restricting) the project’s visual rhetoric—the way its visual components communicate meaning in order to tell the story. This session is appropriate both for authors who don’t illustrate and for author-artists interested in illustrating their own work.
Making a Scene: How to Tackle Drafting and Revising at the Scene Level - Breakout
Saturday, Sept 21st 2 pm - 3 pm
Peddler
Scenes are often described as the bricks or building blocks of a novel. It’s not a bad analogy as a starting point—they’re small, discrete units (scenes have a beginning and an ending) that build on each other to advance a story, right? But then again, bricks are usually the same shape and size, and scenes definitely should not be so! Each should have its own stakes and staging, its own purpose and pacing. In this session, we’ll analyze one scene from a recently published YA novel (The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza) in three different stages of revision, from early draft to final text. We’ll take a close look at the scene’s fundamental elements (the setting, the dialogue, the character goals) and track them across revisions, discussing how, as those components change (or don’t!) from one draft to the next, the scene evolves from a simple unit of forward motion in the larger story to a fully realized moment that brings the story to life.
First Pages Panel - PB Room
Saturday, Sept 21st 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Merchant
Conference attendees are invited to submit the first page of their manuscript anonymously and receive feedback from our industry professionals. Visit the First Pages Submission page for details.
Pitchers Anonymous
Results Posted: Saturday, Sept 21st 5:30 pm
Location TBA
Conference attendees are invited to submit to our pitch event and find out anonymously if any faculty have invited them to submit. Learn more.
Faculty Q&A Panel
Sunday, Sept 22nd 10:45 am - 11:45 am
Knox Auditorium
