I’m thrilled to announce the results of my Story Builder Competition for my students, Grades 6 – 8, in La Grange D102, IL. It’s always a treat to celebrate the enthusiasm and dedication of these young writers. As ever, the choice was difficult, and I had to recruit the help of co-judge, fellow author and creative writing professor Shawn Shiflett to assist this year. Click on the title links of the Story Laureates below to read the winning entries.
2020 Story Laureates:
Joanna Barcelona (Ogden Avenue School) – “Branching Out”.
I loved the arc of this story, the teasing question that threads through it about the identity of the narrator. Joanna also had some interesting ideas about how we communicate with one another and what friendship means. A thought-provoking entry.
Anka Lampe (Park Junior High) -“The Color of George.”
The voice of this submission drew me in. Anka’s decision to show events through the eyes of a protagonist with learning difficulties is effective. George expresses himself well, even though he uses unconventional language.
Liam Whittleton (Ogden Avenue School) – “Card Throwing Killer.” The offbeat humor in this piece made me smile. I liked Liam’s choice of diary format, too. Quirky details, a pacy plot, and a chicken called Steve. Excellent stuff.
2020 Merit Winners:
With a hint of the horror genre, The Key is a dream-like story full of action and sensory details.
Benjamin Sander (Park Junior High) — “Excerpts from Defender” A segment from a longer story, I loved Ben’s world-building in this piece. Details, large and small, are vividly imagined and tension about the protagonist and his actions run through the whole submission.
Am excited that Shake Rag Alley have rescheduled our writing retreat, Mining the Story, this year and that we’ll still get to teach and meet the students in the beautiful old mining town of Mineral Point. Join us if you’re free! The new dates are September 25-27, 2020 (click 
I’ll be hosting this event on behalf of SCBWI Oak Park and Bolingbrook Networks. Join us to hear the wonderful Kate Hannigan talk about Exploring the Genres That Get Us Most Excited About Writing for Young Readers. To register, see this 
Looking forward to the fourth annual Writing Retreat: Mining the Story at Shake Rag Alley in May. I’ll be talking about Your Inner Child, An Exercise in Narrative Distance alongside a brilliant faculty of Christine Maul Rice, Patricia Ann McNair, Shawn Shiflett, Eric May and Philip Hartigan. For more details, click the link: 
Thank you Butler Children’s Literature Center for hosting the 2020 CaldeNott Awards this weekend! Was fun to read the excellent list and chime in as a “committee member.” Here are the results: 
Was so thrilled to learn that these sculptures of Kitty and Leah (characters from my picture book, MINE!, illustrated by Laura Hughes) have been created. Aren’t they gorgeous?! Thanks for sending me the photos, Allison Nix Marshall.
As I puttered around the internet recently, I stumbled upon some cute reviews of Mine! that I hadn’t seen before by 
I’ll be presenting at the fourth annual Mining the Story writing retreat at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts next year (May 29-31), alongside a wonderful faculty including 
