Picture Book Summit | 2023

Picture Book Harmony: The Marriage of Story and Art
Picture books are a unique art form because of the way the illustrations and words interact within a limited space. While these creative boundaries can be challenging, they have the potential to make the storytelling shine.

Celebrated author-illustrator team Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead will draw from classic examples as well as their own books to navigate the process of bringing a book to life and reveal how picture book text and art can come together in perfect harmony!

Meet Philip & Erin
Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead are the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Medal Book A Sick Day for Amos McGee. They have collaborated on many books together, including Bear Has a Story to Tell, Lenny & Lucy, Music for Mister Moon, and The Sun Is Late and So Is the Farmer. Philip and Erin create their books in the hayloft of an old barn at the edge of the world.

Creating In Concert: The High and Low Notes of Writing Partnerships
Musical icon Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton have written over 30 children’s books together, including nine New York Times bestsellers. What’s their process? Do they ever disagree? Do they still get rejections? What are the keys to their successful partnership, and how does their background in the arts inform their writing? Join us for a once-in-a-lifetime conversation with this celebrated mother-daughter duo.

Meet Julie & Emma
Julie Andrews has a legendary career that encompasses the Broadway and London stages, as well as multiple films, television shows, album releases, concert tours, directing assignments, and the world of children’s publishing. In 2000, the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II for lifetime achievements in the arts and humanities.

Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling author, award-winning editor, stage and television producer, and writing coach. With her mother, actress/author Julie Andrews, Emma has co-authored over thirty children’s books, nine of which have been on the NY Times Bestseller list, including The Very Fairy Princess series. She teaches Children’s Literature for Stony Brook University’s Creative Writing MFA and is the co-host of the Julie’s Library Podcast.
Their next collaboration, The Enchanted Symphony, debuts in September 2023.

The Music of Language
Language learning is serious business. We all understand how important it is that our children learn how to read and write. But sometimes we take it a little too seriously, swinging the pendulum from the delightful wordplay of early childhood to the dry, regimented grind of grammar acquisition, spelling proficiency, and the mechanics of structure.

Unfortunately, a child's natural love of the music of language is often lost in the process, and we spend years trying to figure out how to restore it. That's where lyrical picture books play a vital role.

Meet Nikki
Nikki Grimes is the recipient of the Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the ALAN Award for outstanding contributions to young adult literature, the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

Her memoir, Ordinary Hazards, received both a Sibert and a Printz Honor. Other distinguished works include the Coretta Scott King Book Award winner Bronx Masquerade, and Coretta Scott King Book Award Honor books Jazmin’s Notebook, Talkin’ About Bessie, Dark Sons, Words with Wings, and The Road to Paris. She is also the creator of the popular Meet Danitra Brown. Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California.

8 Ways to Ruin a Picture Book Biography
Authors Angela Dalton and Julie Hedlund both published their first picture book biographies this year. They did everything wrong—before they ultimately hit the right notes and made their books sing. In this workshop, by sharing what not to do, they will teach you what you should do in order to write a compelling picture book biography for today's competitive market.

Meet Angela & Julie
Angela Dalton is an award-winning author of children’s literature based in Oakland, California. She self-published her first picture book If You Look Up to the Sky in 2018 and is celebrating the release of her fourth titled picture book and first biography To Boldly Go: How Nichelle Nichols and Star Trek Helped Civil Rights (HarperCollins, 2023). Her other work includes Ruby’s Reunion Day Dinner (HarperCollins) and Show the World! (Viking, 2022). Her forthcoming debut early reader, Freedome Celebration: A Juneteenth Party is scheduled to release in 2025 with HarperCollins.

Julie Hedlund is an award-winning picture book author and founder of the 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge. Since 2012, 12 x 12 has encouraged thousands of picture book writers to get their stories out of their heads and onto the page. Julie is a frequent speaker at writing retreats and conferences. Her picture book credits include Over, Bear! Under Where?, My Love For You is the Sun, and A Troop is a Group of Monkeys. Her picture book biography on film and theater icon Julie Andrews, Song After Song: The Musical Life of Julie Andrews, debuts in Fall 2023.

How to Create A Smart Dummy
Whether you’re an author-only or an author-illustrator, if you want to be smart about your manuscript you need to make a dummy. A mockup of your book–a real-life, page-turning dummy––can help you assess rhythm and pacing, tension build, the balance of acts, page turns, and whether your text provides enough variety when it comes to illustrations. Author and illustrator Katie Davis demonstrates how creating a dummy is the key to making your manuscript sing.
Come to this workshop with 8 pieces of paper, pencils, scissors, tape, and your printed manuscript, and leave with your very own smart dummy.

Meet Katie
Katie Davis is an award-winning writer/illustrator whose published work includes kidlit genres from picture books to middle grade to young adult. Her first picture book, Who Hops? turns 24 this year, and Kindergarten Rocks! has been a perennial favorite since 2005.

Katie critiques manuscripts twice a month through her Writers’ Block membership and is the former Director of the Institute of Children’s Literature and Institute for Writers. Her books have sold over a million copies and her two guides for writers, How To Promote Your Children’s Book and How to Write a Children’s Book, both debuted at #1 on Amazon.

Emily S. Keyes is the founder of Keyes Agency, LLC. Previously she was a literary agent at Fuse Literary and a contracts manager/associate agent at L. Perkins Agency. Before entering the world of agenting, she worked in the contracts department of Simon & Schuster, Inc where she handled copyright, reversion of rights, and assisted with author contracts. In 2008, she graduated from New York University’s Center for Publishing. She uses her knowledge of contracts, copyright, and the publishing business to benefit her clients.

Lane earned a Bachelors’ degree in English Literature from Virginia Tech, and a J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School. She is a Young Adult author and works as an attorney in Washington, D.C. As the creator of the #BVM hashtag for Twitter story pitch events, and the co-founder of #PitBLK, a pitch event highlighting Black writers, she is committed to making sure marginalized voices have a space in traditional publishing.

Saba Sulaiman is an agent at Talcott Notch Literary Services, a boutique agency located in Milford, CT. Saba looks for stories she wishes to champion that showcase the individual and the world around them. She feels books are a heartwarming way to connect us all through storytelling, that children are particularly receptive to differences, and that they also tend to embrace silliness and absurdity as simple matter of fact. Saba represents picture books, middle grade, YA, as well as some chapter books (but mostly clients she already represents). She loves stories with heart, stories with certain sense of urgency, high concept, whimsy, word play, structural experimentation, humor (she notes there is space for humor in everything), honest storytelling, books that open conversations with children, and diversity and inclusivity in all forms.

Karen Boss is a senior editor at Charlesbridge where she works on fiction and nonfiction books from board to YA. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons College and was a mentor for their Writing for Children MFA program for many years. Karen also has an MA in higher education administration and worked at colleges and in the nonprofit sector for 15 years. In her free time, Karen often plans “Auntie Karen adventures” for her four nieces.

Nikki Garcia is an associate editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers where she works on books for all ages. During her time at LBYR, she has had the honor of working with talented creators such as Sophie Blackall, Jennifer Torres, Monica Brown, Laini Taylor, and more. Born and raised right here in New York City, Nikki graduated from St. John’s University and Harvard University, and thankfully didn’t have to travel very far to make her dreams come true.

Talia Benamy, editor at Philomel Books, joined Penguin Random House as an editorial assistant in 2013. She graduated with a BA in English from Cornell University. Talia is the editor of Cramm This Book: So You Know WTF Is Going On in the World Today by Olivia Seltzer, My Love for You Is Always by Gillian Sze and Michelle Lee, and You Can Be ABCs by Robert Samuel White II, Robert Samuel White III, and Robert Paul Jr. She co-edits the She Persisted chapter book series with Jill Santopolo. She is constantly on the lookout for books that will help readers understand the world around them and their ability to impact it, as well as books that embrace feminism, celebrate wordplay, and focus on Judaism, politics, or space. When she’s not editing books, Talia can be found engaging in political activism, winning bar trivia nights, eating all the pizza, and planning her next trip. Follow her on Twitter @taliabenamy.