Maurene Goo: Throwback
What would you do if you traveled back in time to the 1990s…and met your mother when she was a teenager? In award-winning author Maurene Goo’s Throwback, that’s exactly the situation in which second-generation Korean American Samantha…
YA: Falling for Love
Wrap up your book festival day with this celebration of young love, offering the perfect swirl of coming-of-age sweetness and teenage awkwardness with a guaranteed happily-ever-after for all. Author and educator Tiffany Golden and Nafi, one…
YA: Haunts and Horrors
If screams of fear and lurking monsters are right up your (dark and spooky) alley, you’re in luck—this session is all about the heebie-jeebies and goosebumps! In her debut collection Man Made Monsters, winner of the prestigious Walter Award,…
The Art of Brevity: A Flash Fiction Writing Workshop
If you've dreamed of writing fiction but don't know where to start, may we make a suggestion? Start with a (very) short story! NaNoWriMo executive director Grant Faulkner (author of The Art of Brevity) and author and educator Kim Culbertson…
YA: What’s Your Inspiration?
What do the fairy tale "Rapunzel," the musical My Fair Lady, and the novel Of Mice and Men have in common? They all served as inspiration for the latest works by the talented authors featured in this session, who took those classic works and…
YA: Thriller Superstars
This gathering of YA authors is nothing less than an event. Debut novelist Nick Brooks' Promise Boys explores system racism—and murder—at a DC prep school and has been called "breathtakingly complex and intriguing" (Kirkus). Brooks joins…
Coming of Age in Words and Pictures
The transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond is a perennial theme in fiction—and for good reason. How many of us still have cringe-worthy moments from our teenaged years seared as indelible images in our brains? Here, three creators…
Native Voices: Essayists from the 2023 Graton Student Writing Program
The Graton Writing Project is a series of writing workshops open to middle- and high-school Native students from Sonoma, California, that culminates in a published youth anthology. This year, students were asked to write on the theme of imagining…
Cinnamongirl: Write Your Story
Now in its third year, Write Your Story is an exciting year-long program that brings creative writing masterclasses and artistic mentorship to young women of color, ages 12 to 18, through the organization Cinnamongirl, Inc. Once again this year,…