Contact:
Margaret Speaker YuanSociety of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
norcaconference@yahoo.com
SCBWI SF North & East Bay Summer Workshop
Speaker Bios and Program Information
Program Information
Thursday 7 PM
Wallace E. Keller and Valerie Mih
The founders of app development company See Here Studios will speak on new opportunities in electronic media for children's writers and illustrators. Click here to visit their web site.
Workshop #1 Friday Morning
Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary
Revising the Novel: Six Steps to Get Your Middle-Grade or Young Adult Manuscript Ready for Submission
Suzanne Morgan Williams
The Big Picture - re-vision using specific techniques to address confusing plots, flat characters, emotional distance. What > is your book really about?
Workshop #3 Saturday Morning
Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary
Lessons from Five Master Plotters:
For writers of both picture books and longer works.
Workshop #4 Saturday Afternoon
Suzanne Morgan Williams
Solid Structure and Careful Detail -more dissection with an eye to tight plot, functional setting, and elegant timing.
About Wallace Keller Co-founder and Creative Director, See Here Studios
Wallace E. Keller is an experienced author and illustrator of children's books and educational textbooks (Rizzoli's International, Scholastic, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin). His editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Business Week, Ms. and Psychology Today. He has also designed national ad campaigns (McDonald's "What's On Your Plate" animated PSAs) and children's television shows (Nickelodeon's "Dora the Explorer"). He received a B.F.A in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
About Valerie Mih, Co-founder and Creative Director, See Here Studios
Valerie Mih has created animation for feature films (Toy Story II, A Bugs Life), television commercials (Hershey's Kisses) and computer games (Star Wars Math, Posit Science Brain Fitness Program). An M.F.A. graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts animation program, she has directed and produced award-winning educational films, including shorts for PBS and an animated documentary about Albert Einstein (awarded Best Animation, Cinema and Technology Festival). An avid musician and composer, she performs jazz piano in the San Francisco Bay Area and can be heard on several independently-released jazz albums.
About Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary
Abigail Samoun has worked in children's publishing for over a decade. During that time she's edited board books, picture books, middle-grade, and early young-adult novels for Tricycle Press, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Little, Brown. These include the SCBWI Golden Kite winner George Hogglesberry: Grade School Alien; the 2008 Pura Belpre Honor winner, What Can You Do with a Rebozo?; the Smithsonian Notable young adult novel, Shifty; and the New York Public Library Ezra Jack Keats award-winner, Yesterday I Had the Blues. Abigail also edited the middle grade series Edgar & Ellen which has sold over a quarter of a million copies worldwide and launched a cartoon series on Nickelodeon. She has just launched a new literary agency, Red Fox Literary. She will be looking for children's writers (all genres except picture book), illustrators and author/illustrators.
About Suzanne Morgan Williams
Suzanne Morgan Williams is the author of the middle grade novel, Bull Rider (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009) and 11 nonfiction children's books with more books on the way. From the time she wrote her first book, Made in China, Ideas and Inventions from Ancient China, (Pacific View Press, 1997) to the present, her work has taken her into classrooms to connect with students, to universities and museums to work with experts, and to communities to share experiences..Click here to visit Suzanne's web site.
Evening sessions
Informal readings and group discussions will be held in one of the living rooms at the residence.
