One of the many faces of Gypsy by and copyright Gretchen Del Rio
‘Picture books are a vital part of childhood. They are where we start to learn about ourselves and the world around us, and about the possibilities of literature, art and the imagination. There is still so much work to be done to make the world of picture books an inclusive, welcoming place where children can see themselves and also learn about others. I am looking forward to building an exciting, outward-looking list for children of all backgrounds.’ Emma Wright, Publisher, The Emma Press
The Emma Press has announced plans to launch a call for picture book proposals from writers – including those who illustrate their own work – in 2019. The independent publisher, which is based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham (UK), will be looking for manuscripts for picture books for children with potential for crossover appeal.
The call will open on 14th January 2019 and closes on 20th April 2019.
Writers will be invited to send in full manuscripts for the first round of submissions. All finished picture books will be 32 pages long, including front-matter and end-matter. The editorial team reading the submissions will consist of Yen-Yen Lu, Charlotte Geater, Emma Wright, Richard O’Brien and Philippa Barker. Successful proposals will be matched with illustrators.
The editors are particularly keen to see picture book manuscripts from authors who are underrepresented in publishing. They are keen to see submissions from BAME writers, from writers with immigrant backgrounds, from LGBTQ+ writers, and from disabled writers. They are seeking new stories, and fresh perspectives on the world for a curious, contemporary readership.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
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Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterized by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence.Different people are affected to varying degrees.Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, “sounding out” words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads.Often these difficulties are first noticed at school. When someone who previously could read loses their ability, it is known as alexia. The difficulties are involuntary and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. MORE [Wikipedia]
I republish this post every couple of years. The reason: I once overheard a mom telling her son he couldn’t be a writer because he was dyslexic. Not true. I’ll admit that even in a relatively mild case like mine it does take considerable focus (exhausting sometimes) to get things right or as near to right as possible. Also one does have to deal with people who are scornful, but so what. If your child is doing what s/he wants to do s/he’ll deal with it.
Some days I get caught between my inability to spell a word and the artistic desire to use just the right one. There’s a temptation to take the lazy way out, to substitute the easy word for the perfect one. My spelling is so bad that I got Ds and Fs on tests in elementary school. I was always the first one to get booted out of the spelling bee.
Later in life, when my son got home from school, I would hand him a manuscript and pay him a quarter for every misspelling he found. Now I just text him. Generally I can’t come close enough to the right spelling … if I could the spell-check might work for me … so I just make like a crossword puzzle:
“Son, Homer between a rock and hard place … ?”
“Mom, Scylla and Charybdis.”
“Son, it begins with an ‘a’ and is foolish.”
“Mom, absurd…!!!!”
Even though I’m a slow reader and a poor speller, it never occurred to me that I couldn’t write for a living, probably because I wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until I was almost fortyish. (Story for another day.) I had no name to give this puzzling situation. In retrospect, that might be a good thing.
For years I thought my problem was my Brooklynese, my pronunciation. On and off over time I read books and listened to tapes on elocution, which did seem to help a bit. Then Laurel D. sent us this Funny or Die video, The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee. It’s a chuckle-and-a-half and has nothing to do with dyslexia, but in an odd way it sort-of validates my hypothesis. Pronunciation may not be the root of the challenge, but it probably does help to complicate things.
If you’re reading in email, you’ll likely have to click through to this site to view the video. (If you’re also from Brooklyn, it’s a must see.)
Humor aside, dyslexia shouldn’t stop anyone from being a writer. It’s not a reason to give up on writing or to encourage your children to do so.HERE is a list of twenty-five well-known writers who are or were dyslexic. The late Stephen Cannell was famously dyslexic. He was open about it in an effort to help and encourage others. The Learning Center section of his website provides some background and tips.
It is estimated that 15-17% of the population is dyslexic.
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (1938 – 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
PEN America, a leading voice for the importance of literature in civic life, filed a friend of the court brief on Tuesday urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to recognize Americans’ constitutional right of access to literacy.
PEN America filed the amicus in the case of Gary B v. Snyder, in which students at Detroit Public Schools have brought suit against the State of Michigan for their failure to provide the basic educational standards necessary to ensure that these children have a functional level of literacy. Within their suit, these Detroit-area students described the conditions of their education, among them: unsanitary and dangerous conditions, an absence of appropriate textbooks or even reading material, and overcrowded classrooms. As a result, many of these students are unable to read, write, or process written material at anything approaching grade level.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan dismissed the students’ suit in June, and the case is now on appeal before the federal Sixth Circuit.
“Depriving these children—our children—of access to literacy is an unacceptable and immoral tragedy for them. It is also a tragedy for all of us that is and should be unconstitutional,” PEN America argues in its brief.
Within the brief, PEN America referred to two of its original research reports—Missing from the Shelf: Book Challenges and the Lack of Diversity in Children’s Literature, and Faking News: Fraudulent News and the Fight for Truth—to demonstrate the essential role of literacy in enabling children to become educated and engaged citizens, and to be provided with the opportunity to achieve their potential as adults.
“The complete failure of the state of Michigan to ensure a basic standard of literacy for these students is not only an outrage, it is also unconstitutional.” said James Tager, Deputy Director of Free Expression Research and Policy. “PEN America has championed the freedom to write and to read for almost a hundred years, and we recognize that this freedom to read is inextricable from the right, firstly, of access to literacy. As an organization of writers and readers, we can proudly attest to how literacy is essential to meaningful social and political participation in our communities. With this brief, we are urging the Sixth Circuit to do the right thing and to take this step towards recognizing the right of access to literacy.”
PEN America, founded in 1922, is an organization of over 7,000 writers and their allies, and the American chapter of the PEN International movement. Through the work of its member-led Committees such as the Children and Young Adult Books Committee and the Writers in the Schools Committee, as well as through its original research and advocacy, PEN America has consistently pushed for the right to read within various American communities.
The full text of the amicus brief can be found here.
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. It champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson
This Wednesday’s Writing Prompt, Zero at Bone and Marrow, stated that the deadline was November 26. No! It’s Monday, December 3 at 8 p.m. Pacific. Poems on theme will be published on Tuesday, December 4. So, the deadline has not passed by. Do come out and play. All welcome: beginning, emerging or pro poets.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 