Interview with Author-Illustrator LeUyen Pham

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Graphic Novels, illustrator tips, illustrators, LeUyen Pham, picture books, Shannon Hale, writing tips

Southern California author-illustrator LeUyen (pronounced Lay-Win) Pham is the 2020 Caldecott Honor winner and a NYT, Indies, and USA Today best-seller. Her successful collaborations include illustrating Julianne Moore’s Freckleface Strawberry series and Shannon Hale’s The Princess in Black chapter book series. LeUyen was also co-collaborator on Hale’s popular Real Friends middle grade graphics series. And there’s much more—over a million books in print more!

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! You wrote and illustrated your latest picture book, Outside, Inside (Roaring Brook Press, 2021). The book beautifully addresses how weird it was when everyone suddenly had to be inside. Even though the pandemic isn’t mentioned until the back matter, the way we felt during that time is clearly communicated. Was it harder writing this book than some of your others?

Agent and SCBWI-LA WWR Faculty Victoria Wells Arms On Critiques, First Lines, and More

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Candice Ransom, critiques, E.D. Baker, first lines, Han Nolan, Katherine Hannigan, Marcella Pixley, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Susan L. Roth, Susan Middleton Elya, Victoria Wells Arms, Working Writer's Retreat

Before founding Wells Arms Literary Agency in 2013, Victoria Wells Arms spent 20 years in the publishing industry, working as an editor at Penguin and Bloomsbury, where she was the founding editorial director for their U.S. children’s list. She brings her expertise to this year’s Working Writer’s Retreat (WWR) as faculty.

She’s worked with bestselling and award-winning authors, including: E. D. Baker, Susan Middleton Elya, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Katherine Hannigan, Han Nolan, Marcella Pixley, Candice Ransom, Susan L. Roth and Renee Watson. She is an MFA candidate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts’s Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

Victoria took time away from her studies to answer our questions and share her insight.

ERLINA VASCONCELLOS: The retreat will feature a panel on first pages. How do first pages make readers eager for more? What are the elements commonly overlooked by unpublished writers?

Author’s Perspective: Interview with Shannon Hale

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chapter book, middle grade, Princess in Black, Shannon Hale

New York Times best-selling author Shannon Hale (and SCBWI member) has published more than 20 children’s books. Her third Princess in Black book was released earlier this month; this middle-grade chapter book is part of Hale’s latest series.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome! How long have you been writing books?