2012 Faculty - Gennifer Choldenko, Brian McMullen, Annie Barrows, Katherine Applegate and many more!
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    This
year's participants will spend four event-filled days in beautiful
Northern California writing, workshopping, networking, and perfecting
their craft with a celebrated faculty featuring prize-winning authors and illustrators including Gennifer Choldenko (author of Newbery Honor Book Al Capone Does My Shirts), Brian McMullen (editor at McSweeney's), Annie Barrows (New York Times bestselling author of the Ivy and Bean series, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society), and Katherine Applegate (author of the wildly popular Animorphs series). |
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 | Andrea Alban
Author of picture books including The Happiness Tree, as well as Mother's Nature: Timeless Wisdom for the Journey into Motherhood and other adult inspirational books written under the name Andrea Alban Gosline. Anya's War is her first novel, and based on her own family's experiences during WWII. Andrea lives in San Francisco. Read more >> |
| Katherine Applegate
Author of many books including the Roscoe Riley Rules chapter book series, the picture book The Buffalo Storm, and the award-winning novel Home of the Brave. With her husband, Michael Grant, she wrote the hugely popular series Animorphs, which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. Katherine was inspired to write The One and Only Ivan after reading about the true story of a captive gorilla known as Ivan, the Shopping Mall Gorilla. The real Ivan lived alone in a tiny cage for twenty-seven years at a shopping mall before being moved to Zoo Atlanta. Read more >> |
| Annie Barrows
Barrows is the author of the New York Times bestselling Ivy and Bean children’s books. The first title in the series, Ivy and Bean, was an ALA Notable Book for 2007. It was followed by many others, as well as a number of stationery and toy products. The ninth book, Ivy and Bean Make the Rules, will be published in the fall of 2012. Annie’s 2008 novel The Magic Half has been nominated for eight state awards, including the Maud Hart Lovelace Award. In addition to her children’s books, Annie is the co-author, with her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, of the New York Times bestseller The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which has been published in 33 countries to date, and has sold over three million copies. Read more >>
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| Shirin Yim Bridges
Award-winning author and publisher of children’s books. Her first picture book, Ruby's Wish, was named a "Best Children’s Book" by Publishers Weekly and won the Ezra Jack Keats Award. It is has been translated into seven languages. Her second book, The Umbrella Queen, made Time/CNN’s "Top 10 Children’s Books 2008." A third picture book, Mary Wrightly So Politely, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2013. Shirin is also the Head Goose of Goosebottom Books. Goosebottom Books’ first series, The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Real Princesses, won an Independent Publishers’ (IPPY) medal for Multicultural Nonfiction. Read more >> |
 | Minju Chang
Chang joined the Bookstop Literary Agency in 2006, and represents middle-grade and young adult writers of all genres. She has a particular interest in smart adventure/mystery novels, magical realism, and intense literary fiction, but her real weakness is for funny, clever, and gutsy characters with big attitudes. Read more >> |
| Gennifer Choldenko
Choldenko has won numerous honors for her work. Her book Notes from a Liar and Her Dog was a California Book Award winner. Her book Al Capone Does My Shirts was named a Newbery Honor Book. Her other books include Louder, Lili, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, Al Capone Shines My Shoes (a sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts), and No Passengers Beyond This Point. Gennifer is hard at work on the last book in the Al Capone trilogy, which is due out in 2012. A good deal of the research for the Al Capone books was accomplished while serving as a docent on Alcatraz Island. Read more >> |
| Ying Compestine
Author of YA and Middle Grade novels Revolution is Not a Dinner Party and A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, as well as children's books including Crouching Tiger, The Runaway Wok, and Boy Dumplings. She has visited schools throughout the US and abroad, sharing with students her journey as a writer, how her life in China inspired her writing, and the challenges of writing in her second language. Read more >> |
| Julie Downing
Internationally published author and illustrator. She has written and or illustrated over 30 books for children including The Night Before Christmas, Lullaby and Goodnight, and The Firekeeper's Son. Downing has won many awards for her work, including a Parents Choice Award, and the New York Public Library Best Books Award. She was recently selected to appear in Talking with Artists Too, a book about 12 of the nation’s best Children’s’ Book Illustrators. Read more >> |
 | Michael Grant
Grant is known for his inventive world building, suspenseful plotting and taut psychological twists that pit good against evil; he brought these talents to bear in BZRK, a new series launched in March. He is also the author of the bestselling GONE series and the cocreator and cowriter of the bestselling middle-grade series Animorphs and Everworld. Read more >> |
| Naomi Kirsten
Associate Editor at Chronicle Books. She acquires and edits books and novelty formats for publishing programs with Moomin, LucasFilm/Star Wars, Girl Scouts of the USA, Paul Frank, GAMAGO, and Boo. Naomi also edits cookbooks and art-driven formats. Prior to Chronicle Books, Naomi was an editor at Harper’s Magazine and Discovery Girls Magazine. Naomi writes frequently about her projects and literary inspiration on the Chronicle Books Blog. Read more >> |
| Summer Dawn Laurie
Independent children’s book editor with ten years’ experience at Tricycle Press and Chronicle Books. After ten years working in-house at children's book publishers, most recently as senior editor at Tricycle Press, the kid's division of Ten Speed Press, and previously at Chronicle Books for Children, Laurie decided to head out on her own. Over the years, she has edited more than 50 published books, ranging from board books to picture books, middle-grade novels to nonfiction.
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| Laurie McLean
Literary agent with the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency. Laurie specializes in middle grade and young adult children's fiction. Laurie is also the Dean of the newly created San Francisco Writers University. Read more >> |
| Brian McMullen
Writer and artist who lives in San Francisco. He is an art director at McSweeney's, where he edits and designs books for McSweeney's McMullens, an imprint of Dave Eggers' McSweeney's. Brian will be accompanied by two new McSweeney's McMullens titles: The Night Riders by Matt Furie and Benny's Brigade by Arthur Bradford, with pictures by Lisa Hanawalt. Read more >> |
| Amy Novesky
Independent children's book editor, creative director, and co-founder of Ever After Studio, a children's book production company. She is the author of Me, Frida and Elephant Prince. Amy is a former editor with Chronicle Books in San Francisco, where she acquired award-winning picture books. Currently she works with writers and publishers to produce children’s books of all kinds. In addition, she is the creative director for Paper Hat Press, a company that creates customizable children’s books and keepsakes. She also frequently teaches writing workshops at Book Passage. Read more >> |
| Kathryn Otoshi
Award-winning writer and illustrator, whose books have won the E.B. White Read Aloud Honor, the Nautilus Gold Award, and the Mom's Choice Award. Her books include Zero, One, Simon and the Sock Monster, What Emily Saw, and Marcello the Movie Mouse. Read more >> |
| Lara Perkins
Assistant Agent with Laura Rennert and Digital Manager at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Lara represents select clients together with Senior Agent Laura Rennert, with a focus on picture book, middle grade, and young adult children's fiction. She also manages the agency's digital efforts on behalf of our authors. Lara is excited to be returning to Book Passage. Read more >> |
| Amy Rennert
Literary agent at The Amy Rennert Agency. Amy has spent
more than 20 years in the publishing business, pursuing her passion for
the written word. The agency represents a select group of quality
fiction and nonfiction writers—many of them award-winners—and dozens
of agency books have been New York Times and national bestsellers. Read more >> |
| Andy Ross
Andy opened the Andy Ross Agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner for 30 years of the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley. The Andy Ross Agency represents books in a wide range of subjects including: narrative nonfiction, science, journalism, history, religion, children's books, young adult, middle grade, literary and commercial fiction, and cooking. For literary, commercial, and children's fiction, Ross only has one requirement—simple, but ineffable— that the writing reveal the terrain of that vast and unexplored country, the human heart. Andy is a member of the Association of Author Representatives (AAR). Read more >> |
| Lissa Rovetch
Lissa is an artist and a writing and creativity coach at Pixar Studios and Funthink. She has written and/or illustrated over 20 children’s books (Ook the Book, Hot Dog and Bob, There Was a Man Who Loved a Rat...), hundreds of children’s magazine stories (Highlight’s Ask Arizona series…), and computer games (Lucas, Mattel…). Lissa heads up the SCBWI Weston Grant, and founded the monthly group for children's writers and illustrators, Kid Lit Salon, which has been meeting at Book Passage since 2008. Read more >> |
| Barney Saltzberg
Author-illustrator of nearly 40 popular children's books, including Arlo Needs Glasses, Beautiful Oops!, the successful Kisses series, Peekaboo, Crazy Hair Day, and Good Egg. Also a singer-songwriter, he has written tunes for the PBS show "Arthur" and continues to perform music for children. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs. Read more >> |
| Ginee Seo
Former VP and Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum, where she had her own imprint. While at HarperCollins, where she launched Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Her experience ranges editorially from picture books to middle grade and YA. Ginee is currently Children’s Publishing Director at Chronicle Books. |
| Kristen Tracy
Author of YA novels Lost It, Crimes of the Sarahs, A Field Guide for Heartbreakers and Sharks & Boys. She is also the author of middle-grade novels Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus and The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter. Read more >>
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 | Pam van Hylckama Vlieg
YA/MG author and an Associate Agent at Larsen-Pomada Literary. If you think that is interesting, Pam is a prolific book blogger at Bookalicious and Hicklebee's Books. Read more >> |
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