Meet April Halprin Wayland, Author, Poet, and Beach Retreat Instructor

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April Halprin Wayland, authors, Beach Retreat, Cencal 2020 Retreat, More Than Enough: A Passover Story, New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story, picture books, poetry, SCBWI events, To Rabbittown, writing, writing tips

By Ann Rousseau Smith, SCBWI CenCal News Liaison

(Photo: Morgan Eagle)

April Halprin Wayland will be joining us for our picture book retreat, January 10–12, 2020, in San Simeon, California. She writes poetry and picture books, including More Than Enough: A Passover Story and the Sydney Taylor Gold Book Award winning New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story. She was named UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Outstanding Instructor of the Year, and blogs with five other children’s authors at TeachingAuthors.com. April will be presenting four sessions during the retreat weekend, which is open to the public, and will include time to write, join small critique groups, stroll on the beach, and enjoy a beachside campfire in the evening.

ANN ROUSSEAU SMITH: Welcome to the Kite Tales blog! Most people love origin stories. Can you tell us a little bit about your first published picture book?

Ask an Editor: Rhyming Picture Book, featuring Renee LaTulippe

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picture book, poetry, Renee LaTulippe, rhyming

“Ask an Editor” is a forum wherein SCBWI members submit questions that are answered as part of our quarterly Kite Tales blog. This month, we feature a guest host, Renée M. LaTulippe, children’s poet, freelance editor, and founder/teacher of The Lyrical Language Lab. 

Dear Editor – I’ve written a rhyming picture book, but now that I’m starting to search for an agent it seems a lot of them don’t want rhyming picture books. What should I do?

 —Sam, Los Angeles

Dear Sam:

This is a question that gets a lot of airtime in kidlit writer circles, and for good reason. After all, we can all see how many rhyming picture books come into the world each year, so someone is writing and selling and publishing them, right? Seeing so many agents and publishers put up “No Rhyme Allowed” signs on their clubhouse doors is frustrating indeed.

Great News!

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authors, community, news, picture books, poetry, SCBWI members, YA, young adult

SCBWI loves celebrating our members’ successes and noteworthy news, and there are many! Read on to find out who’s got something to shout about. Digital high-fives welcome in the comments!

 

 

Joan Bransfield Graham’s poem “Tuck a Poem in Your Head” is featured in former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt’s new poetry anthology One Minute Till Bedtime, which debuted on November 1^st.

Betsy Rosenthal’s An Ambush of Tigers was selected as a 2016 Notable Children’s Book in the English Language Arts and consequently, she has been invited to serve on a panel at the upcoming National Council of Teachers of English annual convention.