One of our newest faculty members in Port Townsend, Sherri L. Smith, has written the article, Brown Girl Dreaming: Entering the Twilight Zone with Jacqueline Woodson and the Dalai Lama, which was published by the National Book Foundation in celebration of Black History Month.
Sherri will also be on two panels at the upcoming AWP in LA. Please stop by, listen and say hello!
Thursday, March 31, 2016, 12:00 pm to 1:15 pm:
Brave New Worlds: Writing Science in YA Fiction.(Cecil Castellucci, Eliot Schrefer, Sherri L Smith, Lydia Kang, Jonathan Alexander) Whether they take place in the here and now or in imagined far-flung futures, YA novels are often complex and layered with problems. With an ever-increasing focus on STEM in schools, how do we tackle the use of real science in YA novels? What do we learn about our contemporary selves as a result of the use of science in YA fiction, and how does the age of the protagonists influence how one tells the story? Join a group of dynamic YA authors tackling all sides of science in fiction in a discussion.
Friday, April 1, 2016, 3:00 pm to 4:15pm You Can’t Write That: The Curious Case of Bias in YA Lit. (Janet Fox, Joy Preble, Geoff Herbach, Cecil Castellucci, Sherri Smith) Does gender bias exist in YA lit? Certainly numerous scholarly and other articles propose that it does. Are male authors of YA titles—and male characters in them—reviewed differently than female authors? Than genderqueer? Does everything from book covers to marketing, from awards to reader expectation of story, shift with gender? Or is this in itself a biased perception? This panel of YA authors engages in civil discourse among peers of the state of gender bias in the field of YA lit.