Lisa Bullard Children's Literature Project Specifics
Children's Literature Project
Online cohort led by Lisa Bullard
Thursdays on Zoom | Starting June 13, 2024 | 6-9 p.m. CST
In order to sign up for a cohort, you have a few options.
- Register in full on the website (full payment is due at the time of registration) or pay via Sezzle at check out
- Fill out the Payment Plan Request Form
- Once registered, the Loft will schedule an introductory meeting between you and the teaching artist to ensure your project is a fit for the program. In the rare instance the teaching artist or student decide this is not a fit, the student is eligible for a full refund. See the Year-Long refund and payment policies for more information.
Register for Lisa's Cohort
May 1 & 16 Info Session
Feel free to join us and ask Lisa questions directly!
2024 Children's Literature Project with Lisa Bullard
Books can play a profound role in influencing children’s curiosity, understanding, and imagination—and the writers who create these titles often help shape the lives of children they will never meet. This year-long program will immerse adults who are interested in writing children’s books in a study of this dynamic and challenging arena. Writers will explore the possibilities inherent in creating books at the intersection of exceptional craft and the distinctive demands of a young audience. If you have ever dreamed of writing a children’s book, this deep dive into writing for young readers will give you a solid foundation for pursuing that goal. Class sessions will focus on what goes into creating appealing picture books, easy readers, chapter books, and middle grade books. We’ll explore fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid, and graphic approaches for readers/listeners ages newborn to twelve. We’ll evaluate a diverse and inclusive assortment of contemporary published children’s books. We’ll discuss students’ works-in-progress in a way that provides constructive and respectful feedback. Class lectures will focus on techniques and real-world examples of how you can make your own writing more powerful. Small-group sessions and guest lecturers will add to your sense of being part of a writing community. Out-of-class assignments will stretch you as a writer.
The teaching mentor is committed to creating a classroom environment where every student is welcomed and valued, with a goal of helping each student reach the next level with their writing. The program is open to writers who are already writing for children and those who are new to this arena. The program is not a guarantee of publication, but we’ll definitely talk about how you might shape your work so it is more likely to be appealing to today’s publishers. However, the program also has much to offer individuals who are writing for other purposes, including the creation of family stories or self-publishing. The element that will bring us together as a cohort is a commitment to creating work that engages and inspires young readers.
Important Dates & Notes
Cohort Meetings
Zoom link sent in confirmation email
All times listed in US Central Time
Year-Long Writing Project Orientation
Required of all participants
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
6:00 PM–7:30 p.m.
Online/Zoom
Year-Long in Children’s Literature Final Public Loft Reading
Thursday, April 24, 2025
7:00 PM
Online/Zoom
Children's Literature Project Instructor
2024 Year-Long Children's Literature cohort led by Lisa Bullard
Summer Meetings
8 Thursdays | 6:00 PM–9:00 PM CST except for weeks when individual consultations are scheduled.
June 13 – August 17, 2024
- 8 full class meetings, Thursdays and Saturdays, with additional one week of individual conferences
- Note: no meeting July 4
- Half-hour individual meetings instead of workshop on July 25
Independent Study
August 19-September 12
One month of independent study time between the final summer meeting and the start of the fall cohort meetings; this time is to be used for independent writing time, focusing on aspects of craft your teaching mentor feels will help your development as a writer; deep reading, of your own work as well as books outside of the cohort reading list that will benefit your writing; one to one meetings with your teaching mentor; writing group meetings with your cohort members.
Fall Meetings
12 Thursdays | 6:00 PM–9:00 PM CST except for weeks when individual consultations are scheduled.
September 19 – December 12, 2024
- Note: No meeting November 28
Winter/Spring Meetings
12 Thursdays| 6:00 PM–9:00 PM.
January 16 – April 3, 2025
Final workshops this term and final guest author.
Final manuscripts are turned in on April 3, with a final one to one meeting scheduled with teaching mentor no later than June 26, 2025.
Suggested Reading
We’ll explore a diverse and inclusive assortment of children’s books, including picture books, easy readers, chapter books, and middle grade titles. Additional titles will be suggested as the teaching mentor becomes familiar with individual students’ works-in-progress, but the titles below are a great way to familiarize yourself with a broad range of contemporary children’s books:
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
- Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer
- Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard
- The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer
- Standing in the Need of Prayer by Carole Boston Weatherford
- A Different Pond by Bao Phi
- Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
- We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
- Extraordinary Magic by Nina Crews
- Whale Fall by Melissa Stewart
- Built to Last by Minh Lê
- Harlem at Four by Michael Datcher
- Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner
- Finding Family by Laura Purdie Salas
- The Good Egg by Jory John
- See the Cat by David LaRochelle
- Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Nikki Grimes
- Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look
- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
- All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat
- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
- Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt
- Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) by Daniel Nayeri
- Big Tree by Brian Selznick
- Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
- A Black Hole Is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano
- Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
- The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee
Workshop Structure
Most meetings will feature a discussion of works-in-progress from three or four of the students in the cohort; students will have several opportunities to share their work over the course of the year. Picture books writers will typically share a complete manuscript each time their work is being discussed. Writers who are drafting longer works will share one to two chapters, depending on length. Discussion sessions for each student’s work will be thirty minutes long. Writers usually discover that they learn as much—if not more—from discussing the work of their peers, so students are encouraged to be deeply engaged in the process even when their own work is not being discussed. We will discuss the process for offering and receiving feedback at our first group meeting, and the structure will emphasize respect, discernment, and confidentiality.
Questions about particular craft topics will often emerge organically from our discussions about student work, so craft lectures will also be a regular part of our meetings. Topics will likely include things such as revision tactics, pacing/momentum, targeting a young readership, voice, beginnings, point of view, setting a tone, showing vs. telling, conflict, muscular language, and writing texts for illustration. Some sessions will also feature a guest lecturer who will speak about their role within the children’s book industry. Meetings will also regularly include writing prompts and discussions about published books as mentor texts. We will also discuss the always-evolving world of children’s books and the trends and considerations that are guiding the work of book creators and publishers.
Students will be encouraged to experiment with approaches and investigate forms of children’s literature that they might not yet have tried. Those who are able to devote time to the experience will likely find they’ve made a significant move forward with their writing, and that they’ve been able to refine drafts of one or more manuscripts by the end of the year
One-on-One Consultations and Final Manuscripts
Each student will also meet one-on-one with the project leader four times over the course of the year-long program. These meetings include one introductory meeting before the program kicks off on June 13, 2024, and one manuscript consultation session after April 3, 2025 when the program concludes (and by which date you need to have submitted your 3-5 final manuscripts, to be completed no later than June 26, 2025).
Visiting Authors & Publishing Professionals
Throughout the year, four to five visiting writers and publishing professionals will meet with your cohort as special guests. The guests will be determined once the teaching artist has had a chance to learn more about the projects that students are working on, but possibilities include:
Writers/Illustrators: Padma Venkatraman, Torrey Maldonado, Laura Purdie Salas, David LaRochelle, Mike Wohnoutka, Margarita Engle, Donna Gephart, Catherine Thimmesh
Publishing Professionals: Editor: Shannon Pennefeather/MNHS Press, Carol Hinz/Millbrook, Emilie Buchwald/Gryphon Press, Dr. Artika Tyner/Planting People Growing Justice, Dawn Frederick/Red Sofa Literary
Access to Lisa during the Year-Long
I will be available to you outside of class via email throughout the year. I regularly check emails and respond as quickly as possible, but sometimes things go astray; if you haven’t heard back from me within three days, feel free to email again. I anticipate that your questions may often be of interest to the group as a whole, and in those cases, I’ll let you know that I’ll respond in more detail at our next class session. If you know you’ll need to miss a meeting or will not be ready to present your work when scheduled, please let me know as far in advance as possible.
Writing can bring up painful memories, encounters, situations; if you need help managing mental health issues, anxieties, trauma, please make arrangements to get help with those things outside of your time with these programs; the Loft can not and does not diagnose, treat, or manage mental health issues, and neither does your teaching mentor. Here are some resources.
Technology
All of our manuscripts are disbursed electronically via a digital service after our first meeting. You must have basic Microsoft Word, Google Docs and email literacy.
Communal Writing Space
Online cohorts have their virtual classroom available to them via Zoom for the duration of their year. These spaces are available for Year-Long Writing participants to utilize at any time for writing and discussion space outside of group cohort meetings.