Writing for Children

Join award-winning author Jean E. Pendziwol for a comprehensive overview of writing for the young reader. This full-day workshop will look at what differentiates writing for children from writing for adults and what remains the same. First, explore the distinctions between kidlit categories and genres to know your work better as you consider publishing opportunities. We’ll then dig deep into your own experiences for ideas with hands-on writing activities in the afternoon. Bring writing tools, your creativity, a sense of adventure and all the questions you ever wanted to ask about writing for children. Participants are also encouraged to bring one book that best captures elements of content and style they wish to emulate in their work—the children’s book you wish you had written. It can be a picture book, MG or YA novel, graphic novel, etc. and traditionally published, ideally within the past five years. 

Jean E. Pendziwol is the author of more than a dozen critically-acclaimed books for children, including Once Upon a Northern Night—finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award—and I Found Hope in a Cherry Tree—a 2020 Globe & Mail recommended book. Her bestselling picture book No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons) was selected by McDonald’s Restaurants for their Happy Meal literacy program and continues to be used to teach fire safety around the world. Jean’s debut adult novel The Lightkeeper’s Daughters was a Globe & Mail bestseller, shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club selection, and winner of the Northern Lit Award. Her books for both adults and children have been translated into more than twenty languages and are available around the world. Her newest picture book, When I Listen to Silence, is illustrated by Carmen Mok and published by Groundwood Books. Jean lives in Northwestern Ontario, where she has been a sessional lecturer of creative writing at Lakehead University.

$10 for members and $40 for nonmembers (includes a one-year NOWW membership)

Registration is required: Visit nowwwriters.ca