sutton052

Jane gives us "a peppy talk" about revising and re-visioning our creative lives as writers and illustrators. "Every year, create something new. Don't settle in your art. Even if the selling slows down (and we all have those times) try something new. You are a creator. So create. Re-create. Try something new." She offers us some tips she uses, including how reading "everything" inspired three new book ideas for her, and how at least once a year, she goes back through her files; "Nothing an author or illustrator does is never lost. ...A creative person's garbage can does not take in garbage - it's a compost heap." With brilliance and heart, Jane Yolen mentors every one of us in the audience. Her final gift to us are these words: "Make wings. And fly somewhere new."

An intimate circle, the group included conference faculty guests Laurent Linn, Emma Dryden, Ellen Hopkins, Jane Yolen, Heidi Stemple, Jeffrey West, Arthur Levine, and Erika Turner. We went around the circle, everyone introducing themselves and sharing what they're working on that has LGBTQ characters and themes, sparking lots of discussion. Standout moments: Ellen Hopkins on why she includes LGBTQ characters in her novels: "I write the teen landscape." And how the current political and cultural climate makes it "more important than ever" that we're here talking about LGBTQ characters and themes in books for young people. Emma Dryden on how agents are telling her that they're looking for manuscripts in which gay is incidental... Which lead to a broad discussion on how we need all kinds of books on the LGBTQ experience, books that star the LGBTQ character and books where they're part of the ensemble, books where it's about the LGBTQ experience, and...

Jane calls "There Might Be Lobsters" a "Perfectly told picturebook." Carolyn Crimi accepts the award, and shares a moving letter from a reader, Jordan, and tells us to "Download your own fight song" and "know there's a Jordan out there waiting for your story."