The Writing Show
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Website for Girls of Summer
http://girlsofsummerlist.wordpress.com/about/
Podcast
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Moderators
Gigi Amateau is the author of the young adult novel, A Certain Strain of Peculiar, and the middle-grade novel, Chancey of the Maury River. Her debut young adult novel, Claiming Georgia Tate, was selected as a Book Sense Children’s Pick, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a VOYA Review Editor’s Choice. She also contributed to the acclaimed anthology, Our White House: Looking In Looking Out. Gigi is a native of Mississippi. She grew up in Mechanicsville, Va., and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She lives in the city of Richmond, Va., with her husband and daughter.
Meg Medina has written for adults and children for over 15 years. Her stories and poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines. MILAGROS: Girl from Away is her first novel for young readers. Her first picture book, TIA ISA WANTS A CAR, is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in 2011. She’s currently working on a new young adult and new middle grade novel. She lives in Richmond, Va., with her husband and three children.
Panelists
Steve Watkins is the author of What Comes After, a young adult novel published in spring 2011, and Down Sand Mountain, winner of the 2009 Golden Kite Award for Fiction from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, both published by Candlewick Press. Another young adult novel, Juvie, is scheduled for publication by Candlewick in spring 2013. Steve is also author of a short story collection, My Chaos Theory, which was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize and an Honorable Mention for the Library of Virginia Fiction Award. He also wrote the award-winning non-fiction book The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire, published in 1997 by the University of Georgia Press, which tells the story of the largest employment discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history. His fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, Poets & Writers, Mississippi Review, 100 Percent Pure Florida Fiction, North American Review, andThe Pushcart Prize Anthology. A graduate of Florida State University, Steve teaches journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature at the University of Mary Washington.
Rebecca Lauren was born in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley and now lives in Philadelphia and teaches English at Eastern University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Quarter After Eight, Calyx and The Cincinnati Review, among others. Her coming-of-age poem, “In the Fifth Grade Locker Room,” appears in both audio and visual form in Poetry Speaks Who I Am, an anthology by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Her chapbook, The Schwenkfelders, was co-winner of the 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize and is available through Seven Kitchens Press.
Valerie O. Patterson was raised in the Florida panhandle where the Gulf of Mexico inspired a love of blue and a fascination with the horizon and what lies beyond. She graduated in May 2008 with an MFA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, where she twice received the Shirley Henn Award for Creative Scholarship. She has also received a Work-in-Progress grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her first novel, The Other Side of Blue, published in 2009, came out in paperback this April. In addition to SCBWI, she is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Women’s National Book Association, and the Authors Guild. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband.
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