Keynote speaker Jon Scieszka kicked off this year’s conference with Tales of a Picture Book Writer: Do’s, Don’ts and Maybes.


Here are a few:

DO read every picture book you can.
DO let illustrators do their thing.
DO be a storyteller.
DON’T chase the market.
DO what thrills you.


M.T. Anderson was our next keynote speaker with The end of All Our Exploring: The Journey of Narrative.

He explains that literature forces us to see what we already know in a new way. It works through estrangement, taking the familiar and making it unknown.

Take us away from what we expect.


A.M. BREAKOUT SESSION

Stephanie Owens Lurie’s session, How to Think Like a Publisher, brought us from publisher to reader.

The List
The Pitch
The Franchise
The Deal
The Media
The Gatekeeper
The Consumer
The End User

More later… For now, I’m off to bed.