Kate Barsotti writes and illustrates middle grade fiction and books aimed at the younger set, such as board books and picture books. You can find out more at www.katebarsotti.com.
Jenn Bailey is thrilled to confirm that she is now represented by Minju Chang and Kendra Marcus of Bookstop Literary. http://www.bookstopliterary.
Bookstop Literary is an editorial agency, and Jenn has enjoyed the process of working with Kendra and Minju, both of whom she met at a Kansas SCBWI conference.
The Biggest Lesson that Jenn would like to pass on is: “When agents say ‘We’d like to see more from you’–believe them! Don’t make them wait six months before you come back around to the project. You could be filled with Happy/Joy a whole lot sooner!”
Congratulations to Anola Pickett and Wyatt Townley! These Heartlanders are finalists for the Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, sponsored by the Kansas City Branch of the American Association of University Women. The award recognizes excellence in writing by local authors.
Pickett’s middle grade historical fiction Wasatch Summer was published by by Bonneville Books, April 2011. Townley’s The Afterlives of Trees is a collection of poems published by Woodley Press in 2011.
Debra McArthur grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where her high school experience included church activities, choir, drum and bugle corps, and the kind of drama and angst that make a person really glad to grow up. She earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University. She has written eight nonfiction books for young readers. A Voice for Kanzas is Debra’s first novel.
Nancy Pistorius of Lawrence, Kansas, has published award-winning fiction, poetry, essays, and feature articles in more than seventy-five different literary and mass-market publications, including WOMAN’S DAY, COSMOPOLITAN, and CHICAGO TRIBUNE. She has an MA in English/Literature from the University of Illinois and also attended schools in England (London) and Florida. Her most recent honor was the 2009 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award (Fiction). She is currently working on a Middle-Grade novel.
You can find her in various places on the Web, including:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2800-Kansas-City-Getaways-Examiner
http://nancypistorius.wordpress.com/
http://lyriclemon.livejournal.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nancy-Pistorius/119289758108843?ref=sgm
Jeana Tetzlaff is an ICL graduate and loves to write middle grade fiction. She has one mg novel on submission to Walker Publishing. In the works are an adult thriller and another middle grade novel that is fantasy grounded in the real world. She has been published in Grit Magazine.
Ronica Stromberg is the author of five children’s books: two published and three under contract. The Time-for-bed Angel, a picture book, came out in 2008, published by Lion-Hudson of England. The book follows the humorous adventures of a guardian angel watching over a rambunctious, bedtime-avoiding boy. Ronica reads the story in day cares, preschools, and early education classrooms during story time or before naps. Her mystery for 10- to 14-year-olds, The Glass Inheritance, came out in 2001, published by Royal Fireworks Press of New York. (Royal Fireworks has also contracted for three teen novels.) The mystery reinforces fifth-grade history curricula with a plot that involves the Great Depression, World War II, and Depression-era glassware. Ronica’s stories appear in 18 anthologies, such as Chicken Soup for the Teen Soul on Love and Friendship, and in numerous magazines and newspapers.
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