And the Oscar Goes To… Children’s Lit!

Say what you will about the ceremony itself (I actually found it to be refreshingly tender and dignified, for the most part), Sunday night’s Academy Awards were a tribute to Oscar’s own medium – the history, customs, elders, and influence of cinema.  From the retro popcorn girls in the aisles and the live band in [...]

Beach Writes – The Southampton Childrens Literature Conference

“If you’re dreaming of becoming the next J. K. Rowling, we’ve got the perfect place for you—the Southampton Children’s Literature Conference!” So said School Library Journal last year after Rocco Staino paid a visit to the Stony Brook Southampton campus to observe the Conference in action. As Director of the Conference, I am delighted to [...]

Red Flags

With all the new publishing options available in our digital world, how can we verify the quality of an agent, editor or publisher?  Unfortunately, the publishing industry is no different than any other. There are plenty of individuals and companies that engage in unethical behavior and take advantage of writers by not following through on [...]

A Lesson in Showing Versus Telling

Last week I started teaching the spring course in Childrens Literature for grad students in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton. We spent the first class discussing the many formats of children’s lit, and began our picture book study (we’ll move on to chapter books, middle grade and YA fiction [...]