Children's book creator conversations and features
Manzanita carries out interviews and conversations between children's book creators, craft artists and members of the Manzanita Mentoring and Workshop Program on a regular basis. We will add videos from these presentations below and to our YouTube channel. These should be of particular interest to radical children's book creators wanting to learn more about indie publishing paths.
Zetta Elliott, author, publisher, scholar and activist, kindly was in conversation with Laura Atkins and members of the Manzanita Mentoring and Workshop Program. Zetta is one of the best writers for kids today. With her publisher, Rosetta Press, she has published a wide range of books for kids and teens. She has also traditionally published a range of titles. Watch the full video on our Youtube channel here to learn more about how Zetta got into writing for children, how she publishes her own books, and her thoughts on the industry.
In this video, craftavist Llano River Blue shares ideas for crafts and creative extensions for picture books. They give tips, in particular, for indie publishers to engage with young people using approaches such as making pipe cleaner figures, tracing pictures and creating paper dolls and clothes, and more! Llano features several books in this video. See link to watch the video and find links to featured books.
Outstanding radical children's book creators Innosanto Nagara (A Is for Activist and many others titles) and Robert Liu Trujillo (Furqan's First Flat Top and many other titles) interview each other about their different children's book creation paths, and take questions from members of the Manzanita Mentoring and Workshop program. Watch the video here.
In this presentation for the Manzanita workshop folks, author, activist and scholar Aya de Leon talks about her new book for middle grade readers, Equality Girls and the Purple Reflecto Ray, and gives all kinds of great advice and insights based on her many authored books. Watch the full video here.