The Morning RSS, 8 April 2024 Edition
A collection of share-worthy items from our morning blog scroll.
Can I just say it’s really hard to write when the “t” key is broken. Not just “the,” but every word with a T takes extra keystrokes. Case in point: the 2 previous sentences. Not particularly extrordinary, but there are 14 Ts. PIA. That’s all I’m saying.
For Writers & Creators
This one’s for the creator in all of us: Book Spine Poems. Have you ever created one? Well then, let this poem at the Miss Rumphius Effect inspire you.
Over at Picture Book Den, Pippa Goodhart shares a collection of illustrations by artists she met at a pop-up student art show. Enjoy some of their work for yourself here: Some Exciting New Children's Book Illustrators to Look Out For.
Lee & Low Books is accepting submissions for its New Vision Awards. [Now through 30 June 2024.
Do you or someone you know write for middle grade or young adult readers? Are you an unpublished writer of color or Indigenous/Native writer hoping to break into the publishing industry for the first time?
Re-envisisioning One-Dimensional Adoptee Narratives in Kidlit is a conversation between Shannon Gibney and Mariama J. Lockington—two authors, scholars, and transracial adoptees. They dive into how this tension impacts their lives, their community building, and the stories they tell.
The thing I love about there being more of us every year is that there are definitely common threads in our experiences, but we are all individual people. Adoptees are not a monolith. I think that the more of our stories that get out there, the less adoptive parents will look at our fictional or hybrid stories and be like, “Oh, this is a parenting book” … And the point we are trying to make as adoptee writers is, there are commonalities that allow us to be seen by each other, but no, we’re not all the same and we’re finding innovative, creative ways to share these nuances—we’re writing fiction, we’re also writing poetry. And that’s important, too – that outlet. ~ Mariama J. Lockington
New Books & Book Lists
The first Tuesday releases of April are a bounty of riches. Exhibit A: New Releases This Week at Rich in Color. Anthologies, horror, realism, fantasy, and a graphic novel, too!
Edith Campbell has a week-by-week listing of all the April releases by or featuring BIPOC people over at Cotton Quilts Edi.
Travis has 2024 books by previous Stonewall Awards winners over at 100 Scope Notes. He had us at There’s No Such Thing as Vegetables? and Escargot and the Search for Spring.
Book Bans & Censorship
For 2024, we’re going to flip the perspective on book bans and censorship. Instead of sharing the head-shaking news, we’re going to share head-nodding ideas!
What better way to show your love of the Freedom to Read and librarians than some anti-book banning swag? Stickers to be precise, but who doesn’t love stickers? See these and more in Kelly Jensen’s Literary Activism newsletter.
Other Bookish Stuff
Let us leave you with this: 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Date a Reader by Danika Ellis of
fame. Insightful and LOL funny? Yep. And do let us know if #5 is your #truth.We are sneaking up on the ides of April, but here in the Blue Ridge it still feels like March. Frosty, chilly mornings bring on a day filled with warm sunshine that calls us outdoors.
Here’s to another week of an amazing spring!
~ Team CYBILS