As I
wrote in my very first TeachingAuthors Thanku, I consider my students and
writers “my storied treasures.”
Lucky
me!
And now lucky
you, because today I’m sharing one of those treasures - the
author/poet/chronicler Carol Coven Grannick – and – gifting you with the
chance to win a copy of her novel in verse REENI’S TURN (Fitzroy Books) which
officially debuts this Sunday! In fact,
you can attend her Sunday, 1 pm CST Book Launch at the Book Stall in Winnetka, Illinois
simply by clicking here.
Full disclosure: Carol and I are a Mutual Admiration Society. We share a bevy of descriptive labels: Chicagoans, SCBWI-Illinois kin, children’s book creators, VERY long-time Writer’s Journey travelers, learning partners, and best of all, friends.
So you can imagine just how far my Teacher/Writing Coach buttons are poppin’ ….now that young readers will have the chance to hold REENI’S TURN in their hands and hearts.
Finally, it’s Carol’s turn! Some of
you may already know Carol from her well-read chronicles of the writer’s life – published
in SCBWI-Illinois’ newsletter The Prairie Wind and posted on popular blogs such
as Cynsations and the Nerdy Book Club.
By underscoring
the importance of resilience and learned optimism, Carol has kept scores of
children’s book writers keepin’ on.
Carol’s eleven-year-old
Reeni will do the same.
She’s a
young dancer. But she’s struggling with lifelong
shyness, anxiety and a newly-developing and expanding body that doesn’t match
the ballerina posters on her bedroom wall. Ultimately Reeni must choose between coming to terms with her natural limitations or taking a chance on becoming the girl of her dreams. The story addresses universal themes of emotional resilience, body acceptance, and the search for courage.
Early
readers lauded the “deeply-moving verse” and the connection readers will make
with Reeni’s struggle.
Carol’s
poetry and fiction for young readers has appeared and/or is forthcoming in Hello, Babybug,
Highlights, Ladybug, Cricket, and Hunger Mountain. Her work for adults
has appeared in Otherwise Engaged, A Moment of Your Time, Red Coyote, The
Write City Magazine, West Texas Literary Review, 2018 Mizmor Anthology, The
Lake, Broad! and other venues.
Thank
you, Carol, for sharing REENI’S TURN, your Journey, your Spirit and this long-awaited
singular Moment with our TeachingAuthors readers.
My teacher’s heart
kvells*
like any Jewish mother’s
Such storied treasures.
*
rejoices
As
always, I’m cheering you on!
Oh, and
thanks to Kiesha Shepard at Whispers From the Ridge for hosting today’s Poetry
Friday.
Happy Reading!
Esther
Hershenhorn
P.S
Remember,
Readers: you can win a copy of Carol’s REENI’S TURN just by entering our
Book Giveaway at the end of Carol’s interview.
. . . . . . .
Here you are, finally, after years on task, readying for your official launch this Sunday of your first published children’s book, the middle grade novel in verse REENI’S TURN. Just how gratifying is this long-awaited moment? How much better is it than those you likely creatively visualized to keep you moving forward on your Writer’s Journey?First, thank you, Esther, for this opportunity to visit Teaching Authors. I am a regular follower who constantly learns from the TA posts, and I’m honored to be here. To your question: I’m pretty certain I never visualized this moment, or these days leading up to the launch!
What lit my way was the process of discovery of Reeni’s character and of how the story would unfold. For me, that happened through writing, rewriting, revising, and re-visioning, then putting the manuscript away for a while before trying again. I didn’t know whether REENI’S TURN would ever find a publisher, and after a while, didn’t think about it unless it seemed a draft was ready for submission. My passion for this story fueled my work over the years, even when “forward” felt “backward”.
But now, and in
the context of all the important issues we face in our current world, it feels
like a virtual celebration will be the perfect thing for welcoming REENI’S TURN
into the world. My biggest dream was always to have the story enable
conversations with children and their adults, and now that’s possible. I feel a
huge amount of gratitude to family, friends, and colleagues who cheered me on
over the years with kind words, critique, crucial pieces of middle grade
information, and above-and-beyond multiple draft readings and feedback.
REENI’S TURN takes on the issue of body image and the underrepresented frequency in middle grade literature of dieting among young tweens. What are your hopes for this novel in the dialogues it will create – for both the reader and our world?
Most of us want to live in a world in which we
are valued and for our character rather than our shape or size, skin color,
religion, ethnicity, and more. I believe size and weight stigma,
non-stereotyped chubby and fat characters, and the diet culture’s impact on
young children, beg for inclusion in diverse middle grade literature.
I’d love for
REENI’S TURN to open meaningful conversations about the story and the issues it
raises—specific to the story as well as unique to each tween’s life. How does
the pressure to be “thin” and “trim” cause us to question our value? What about
Reeni’s great strength for self-reflection? Is introspection helpful, or
harmful? Is an introspective journey just as powerful as an external one when we
search for self-acceptance, the ability to speak up, the leaps we take to
discover courage? How do we become the person we want to be if that involves
facing down fears that have always stopped us in the past? How does it feel to
need the safety of your family and other loving adults, and still need to be
independent, finding solutions to your own problems even if you make mistakes
along the way?
I love that my shy
and fearful Reeni, propelled by her own strengths, knowing she has a safety net
of support, decides to take a big leap into the unknown and try, at least once,
to make a significant change in her life, and maybe in the world as well.
I hope that we see
that we all have that capacity.
I happen to know: (1) you explored both prose and
poetry as story-telling choices when writing REENI’S TURN and (2) while growing
and crafting REENI’S TURN, you were privy to a whole host of voices, each
recommending a different way to go. How
did you come to choose the novel in verse as the best format for Reeni
to share her story of self-discovery? How were you able to find your way?
My
first draft was prose, probably because it felt like a natural extension of the
seed story, “The Inside Ballerina”, my first children’s story published in Cricket
in 2001. But when I began the post-critique revision, rhythms and words
danced around in my brain. I wrote them down, and this changed and intensified
the voice of the story. I felt the difference, even though the verse and the
story itself were nowhere near finished.
After
a few drafts, a professional critique with a respected editor guided me in
creating a middle grade story and challenged the authenticity of the verse,
suggesting I revise in poetic prose. I tried. It was difficult and unpleasant,
and felt like it came from a different part of my brain. I didn’t mind difficult,
not at all. But the prose seemed to be fighting with the rhythms, the line
breaks, the white space in my head. But I also respected that I didn’t quite
know what I was doing, and I don’t regret the attempt to return it to prose.
The
next summer I attended a workshop with another respected mentor. Before my
ten-page critique began, she asked, “Is there some reason you didn’t write this
in verse?” That workshop was a turning point in my commitment to verse, and the
hard work to make each verse—which are 95% of the book—authentic. I did have a
couple of more prose requests from agents who felt that “verse novels are a
hard sell”, but prose no longer matched my vision for the book.
As
the years and revisions went on, there were many voices, as you put it, wanting
not prose instead of verse, but content in and then the same content out.
During that time of adding, subtracting, reorganizing, and streamlining,
REENI’S TURN won a Finalist placement from the Katherine Paterson Award and
Honorable Mention in the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competition. By early 2019, I
had revised the book to where I wanted it to be, and had several full
manuscript requests with agents when Publisher Jaynie Royal of Regal House said
she loved REENI’S TURN, and offered me a contract with her PAL-listed middle
grade imprint, Fitzroy Books. I accepted, revised in a way that felt good to
both of us, and found out what life was like without revising REENI’S TURN.
I
believe verse works best for Reeni’s story because small doses of big, intense
issues in lyrical language create greater accessibility to the story itself and
to the specifics of Reeni’s journey. The
rhythms change with dance, her voices, her interactions with friends and
family, and more. White space allows breathing and respite time to think, feel,
and heal between “scenes”.
But
ultimately, I stayed with verse and worked to make it shine because I had come
to trust myself as a writer and a woman with a story to tell. I didn’t want
to ignore the rhythms and sounds and beats that accompanied the language in my
brain.
And
just as my character learns to trust and listen to her “still, small voice”, I
listened to mine.
Your website showcases your writer’s diversity: you are an Author, a Poet and a Chronicler. How do you balance your writing day/life, and as important, how has each separate focus helped you grow as a writer?
I
do love different formats and genres. REENI’S TURN (MG) is so close to
my heart, and was a long-lived passion and mission. My poetry for very young
children is a joy-generator—I love their voices! My lyrical picture books,
vastly different in their subjects and tone, are now with agent Joyce Sweeney at The
Seymour Agency. I’ve written occasional short middle grade fiction—maybe I’ll
write more. And as a “chronicler”, I’ve long written regular columns, blog
posts, and lots of guest posts and articles exploring the inner, emotional life
of the writer (mine, and others’), and I continue to enjoy that.
With
all that, I must submerge myself in one writing project at a time. I often
write a poem first thing in the morning (especially since COVID), but then I’ll
focus on a new work, or a revision, or my column, or it might be a “business”
day, especially in these last months spent focusing on the pre-launch, during
which I’ll do a lot of emails, send out ARCs, order postcards, business cards,
posters. I am best in the mornings, beginning at 5, but I won’t ignore empty
paper and pen if something pops into my brain later in the day!
I
love variety, and I love delving deeply into one thing at a time.
YAY! and HURRAY! Now it’s Carol Coven Grannick’s turn! What can your readers – of your books, your poetry, your articles and posts, look forward to enjoying down the road?
I
wish I knew! In terms of my columns, I’ll continue to detail my journey and the
journeys of other writers I interview. I have a lot of guest posts coming
out—including one at Sylvia Vardell’s site last Poetry Friday that
goes more into depth about why I wrote REENI’S TURN in verse. I believe it’s important for us to share our
true journeys. I hear from readers that it helps, and that makes me happy. In
terms of fiction and poetry, my agent is subbing a picture book right now, with
a number of others ready to go; I’m finishing an adult poetry chapbook; I’m
creating a collection of early childhood poetry; and I continue to draft new
picture books, the latest based on something I’m watching unfold on my balcony,
even as I write this answer.
But
I love surprises, so I’m ready for anything!
……..
WIN
AN AUTHOR-AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF REENI’S TURN!
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