Hunger Mountain: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

The new issue of Hunger Mountain is live! Here is the welcome Letter from the Editors. (Yep, that's me and friend and author of The Rock and The River and Camo Girl, Kekla Magoon.) Hop on over or follow the links and check out the Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow issue for yourself!

Dear Readers,

Ah, winter has come and gone (though the view from the Hunger Mountain offices still shows snow) and spring is now here. Spring is a time of rebirth, of looking ahead, but there is always the need to look over our shoulders and see where we have been—and why.  Time; memory; seasons of the year; have a way of overlapping, and though Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow should feel separate and distinct, often they do not. This issue celebrates the commonalities and the crossings over between being an artist of today and how the past and future—dystopian or not—come together in much of what we do.

Zetta Elliot in Unpacking the Past searches her immigrant roots and comes to terms with why it is important that all be seen, heard, and not made to feel invisible in between the pages of a book. Ann Angel with Janis Joplin, Readers and Me shares with us her experience of finding a present day, contemporary YA voice to create her award-winning Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing. Kate Milford’s Life On Mars, with the help of Twain and Bradbury,  examines the line historical writers walk—what is too much to include—and what is essential—even if the novel at hand is historical fantasy.

This issue also brings with it a special feature, a celebration called Passion for the Picture Book. In it, we hear from parents, librarians, authors, illustrators, editors and agents on why the death toll (first sounded by the New York Times) for the 32-page spread self-contained world of the picture book is premature and the past, present, and future of the picture book is to be celebrated.

In our regular columns we have Brian Yansky, with his dry and witty take on What My Last Book Taught Me with his How I Found Myself as a Writer and Why It Took So Long. Our Toolbox is bursting with helpful hints from Debbie Gonzales in The Anatomy of a Teacher Guide. In This Writer’s Life triple-threat (author, illustrator, teacher) Charlotte Agell goes on a search for Where the Censor Hides.

In fiction, we celebrate the 2010 winners of the Katherine Paterson Prize as chosen by 2010 judge, Holly Black.  We have first place winner, Jaramy Conners’s  Steve;  runner-up in Young Adult fiction, S.E. Sinkhorn’s Chasing Shadows;  runner-up in Middle Grade Fiction Marcia Popp’s The Ugliest Dog in the World; and runner-up in picture book/writing for Young Children Jane Kohuth’s Something at the Hill.  Joining our 2010 KPP prize winners, as our special feature is on the picture book, we have chosen to highlight two additional stories for young readers. Christabel and Mr. Reader by Barbara Younger and  A Real Best Friend by Linnea Heaney.

We are thrilled to announce the judge for the 2011 Katherine Paterson Prize will be National Book Award winning Kimberly Willis Holt. It’s time again to polish those entries and submit your work for this prestigious prize.

We thank Hunger Mountain’s  loyal and new readers alike for reading and commenting and our contributors who, as always, continue to make us think, cause us to act, and inspire us to dream.

Best,

 Bethany and Kekla