Hunger Mountain, 2012 Submission Calls PLUS The Opening of The Writing Barn

It officially has only been fall for a few days (though the temps in Austin are still 100) but things have been busy on this end. The Writing Barn is soon to open and as YA and Children's Editor of Hunger Mountain, I wanted to let all readers know about our 2012 Submissions Needs.

Hunger Mountain Submissions Call

The Hunger Mountain Children’s & YA page continues to showcase the best and brightest in children’s literature, from new voices to award-winners. We spotlight industry issues as they happen and create a dialogue between writer, reader, librarian, parent, and all interested in kid-lit. 

 *We are also interested in sneak-peaks into new books coming out, deleted chapters from books, short stories, etc.* Hunger Mountain buys first world serial rights and upon publication, the rights revert back to the contributor.  For sneak-peaks, publisher and rights department approval is needed. 

For those interested in submitting, please visit the Hunger Mountain submissions page.

Jan-March 2012

The Mystery & Magic of Identity

Hunger Mountain is actively seeking submissions for the Winter 2012 issue The Mystery and Magic of Identity. We are looking for essays, fiction, poetry, non-fiction and humor that touch on the themes of identity—gender, sexual, ethnic, privilege, author branding, online identity, explorations of self, along with the mystery and magic of world building in fantasy and novels that deal with time travel. For picture books—identity issues as a child, sibling relationships, the magic of word choice, the mystery of the page turn etc.

April-June 2012

The Landscape of Literature

Hunger Mountain is actively seeking submissions for the Spring 2012 issue, The Landscape of Literature. We are looking for essays, fiction, poetry, non-fiction and humor touching on the importance of setting, place, regionally distinct pieces (Not just Southern), use of dialect, heritage—literary heritage as well as author’s heritage, where historical novels now fit, illustrators incorporating setting details in their work, setting as character,  from YA, MG and PB contributors.

Along with our features, each issue we would like to include one or two essays for our regular columns:

The Flipside—two authors various take on one issue.

This Writer’s Life—essays on and about the writer’s life.

INKlings—essays on and about the illustrator’s life and/or techniques.

In Response—an essay adding to or commenting on the conversation from the prior HM issue.

The Toolbox—craft based essays on a variety of topics.

What My Last Book Taught Me—A short essay on what the author’s last book taught them.

New Work—fiction, poetry, short stories, opening chapters of WIP, etc.

Please see our most current issue here: http://www.hungermtn.org/young-adults-and-childrens-literature/

Do not miss the Art & Insanity of Creativity fall issue which will launch later this month.

Do not miss content from the Hunger Mountain C&YA Archives, some highlights include:

Young Adult and Children’s Literature

• Anderson, E. Kristin…Topography (poem) (Spring 2010)
• Anderson, Jessica Lee…Finding Bigfoot (MG Novel Excerpt) (Spring 2010)
• Appelt, Kathi…Blurring the Lines (Winter 2009)
• Atkins, Jeannine…Scrap by Scrap: Turning History into Poems (Spring 2010)
• Auseon, Andrew…The Kid Stays in the Pictures(Summer 2009)
• Brosnan, Rosemary…Missing Norma (Winter 2009)
• Cupala, Holly…Tell Me a Secret (YA Novel Sneak Peek) (Spring 2010)
• Davis, Tanita…Reflected Faces (Spring 2010)
• Dionne, Erin…Contemporary Cinderella: Inner Changes and Transformation Make a Modern Princess (Winter 2009)
• Fagan, Deva…Proactive Princess: Re-Imagining the Fairy Tale (Winter 2009)
• Jahn-Clough, Lisa…So You Want to Write about Sex? (Winter 2009)
• Jones, Carrie…Hunting Bigfoot: Why I Write Fantasy (Summer 2009)
• Knowles, Jo…Helping Inmates Find Their Truth: Using Writing Prompts to Explore Personal Journeys (Spring 2010)
• Lewis, J. Patrick…Can Children’s Poetry Matter? (Winter 2009)
• Mazer, Anne…My Mother, the Writer (Winter 2009)
• Millward, Carol Larese…Star in the Middle (YA excerpt) (Winter 2009)
• Neri, G.…Wahoo! The Incredible Adventures of Chief Wahoo McDaniel: Wrestling Superstar (Summer 2009)
• Neri, G.…Creating The Book: How To Hook Urban (non)Readers (Summer 2009)
• Neri, G.…The Run (YA)(Winter 2009)
• Nuzum, K.A.…Damn it, Jim. I’m a Writer, Not a Paleontologist (Summer 2009)
• Nye, Naomi Shihab…Maximum Security (a poem) (Spring 2010)
• Paterson, Katherine…Fellow Travelers (Summer 2009)
• Patron, Susan…A Lucky Break (Summer 2009)
• Perkins, Mitali…Teens Do Judge a Book by the Cover (Spring 2010)
• Wiles, Deborah…Speaking Through the Veil (Winter 2009)
• Stein, David Ezra…The Making of Pouch (Winter 2009)
• Teplick, Anne…The Quieter We Become, the More We Are Able to Hear: Writing with Teens in a Psychiatric Hospital (Spring 2010)
• Williams-Garcia, Rita…Warning: Characters May Appear as They Are or Why I Write “Realistic” Fiction (Summer 2009)
• Wong, Janet S.…The Poet’s Process (Summer 2009)
• Wynne-Jones, Tim…The Uninvited (YA Novel Excerpt) (Summer 2009)
• Zarr, Sara…Hold On Loosely (Summer 2009)

Interviews

• Corcoran, Jill…Literary Agent Jill Corcoran in conversation with Hunger Mountain YA/Children’s Lit editor Bethany Hegedus (Summer 2009)
• LaReau, Kara…Flying Solo: Editor of Bluebird in conversation with Hunger Mountain YA/Children’s Lit editor Bethany Hegedus (Summer 2009)
• McVeigh, Mark…Literary Agent Mark McVeigh in conversation with Hunger Mountain YA/Children’s Lit editor Kekla Magoon (Summer 2009)
• Smith, Cynthia Leitich…New York Times Bestselling Author of Eternal in conversation with Hunger Mountain editor Bethany Hegedus (Winter 2009)

And in Writing Barn News!

A bit about the barn...

The Writing Barn, a writing retreat and book launch party space is available for rental in S. Austin. Operated by author Bethany Hegedus, The Writing Barn, which features floor to ceiling book shelves, cozy loft, large covered porch, free wifi, spacious bedroom with queen-sized-bed, half bath, and kitchenette, is a haven for all book lovers.  For more information visit: The Writing Barn (web site under construction) and/or email bahegedus at gmail.com for rates and availability.

The Barn's FIRST Event... October 16th, 2-4 pm. 

Please join Jeff Crosby & Shelley Jackson to celebrate the release of their newest children's picture book, HARNESS HORSES, BUCKING BRONCOS & PIT PONIES: A HISTORY OF HORSE BREEDS!

Minis and Friends, a charitable organization that benefits disabled children, will be at the event with live miniature horses to pet. Original art from the book will be on display, prints will be for sale, and copies of HARNESS HORSES will be available for purchase and to get autographed. We'll also have snacks, horsey games and more!
  

This event is open to the public. The Writing Barn is located at 10202 Wommack Road in Austin. Parking will be available inside the property and overflow parking is available on Riddle Road and Wommack Road.

 

It's sure to be a fun event for horse lovers, book lovers, and art lovers of all ages!

Inspiration: Creating Our Own Canons

This last Saturday I spent with members of the Brazos Valley SCBWI giving a talk on Creating Your Own Canon. We talked about turning to the books we love to study the craft of writing. We talked about the obstacles in our way--our weaknesses--in an effort to study and craft and shape our weaknesses into strengths. But no writer is perfect. No book is perfect either. We have flaws as people and it is okay for our writing to have flaws. Just like our strengths, our flaws should be uniquely our own.

During the workshop we read from and analyzed the opening passages of several books in my personal canon. Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary, What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman, The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles.

Here are two of the passages we analyzed.

              I come from a family with a lot of dead people.

              Great-uncle Edisto keeled over with a stroke on a Saturday morning after breakfast last March. Six months later, Great-great aunt Florentine died—just like that in the vegetable garden. And, of course, there are all the dead people who rest temporarily downstairs, until they go off to Snapfinger Cemetery. I’m related to them, too. Uncle Edisto always said, “Everybody’s kin, Comfort."

              Downstairs at Snowberger’s, my daddy deals with death by misadventure, illness and natural causes galore. Sometimes I ask him how somebody died. He tells me, then he says, “It’s not how you die that makes the important impression, Comfort; it’s how you live. Now go live awhile, honey, and let me go back to work.” But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up. I’ll start with Great-uncle Edisto and last March, since that death involves me—I witnessed it.

Opening of Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles.

And...

--Of course, an introduction.

A beginning.

Where are my manners?

I could introduce myself properly, but it’s really not necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

At that moment you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I’ll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, my footsteps.

The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

Personally, I like a chocolate-colored sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every other color I see—the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off stress. It helps me relax.

From The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

Ah, both about death and both so very different. The personal stamps of who Markus Zusak is and who Deborah Wiles is are on these passages. They also contain the very personal stamps of these individual books, as separate from Wiles other work and Zusak's other work.


Creating Our Own Canons and studying them--the masters that have made the greatest impact on our reading hearts can teach us many things. When I sat down to add new books to this talk, I scanned my shelves and the books above are the ones that called to me. I didn't realize it at the time but I choose two books (the ones cited above) that handle life and death, love and loss, making sense out of the suddenness of an unexpected loss and the other showcasing the humanity amid the brutality of the Holocaust. Books speak to us differently at different times and in my hands finding these books again, in opening my heart to the stories I have previously read and loved, I may have been trying to make sense of my own recent loss. Creating Our Own Canons, whether it be for study, or to build our personal collection of books that we can turn to to make sense of whatever life has thrown us is a gift.

Which leads me here, back to embracing our strengths and having compassion for our weaknesses. John Jakes said, "Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you believe, shine through ever sentence you write, every piece you finish." That's what all the books in my personal canon achieve and what I strive to do in my own writing. I take inspiration from that--from boldly being myself--flaws, foibles and all.