Kidlit Happy Hour – Details, episodes & analysis

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Kidlit Happy Hour

kidlithappyhour

Arts

Kids & Family

Frequency: 1 episode/20d. Total Eps: 37

Join New York Times bestselling and award-winning children’s book author Joanna Ho, and children’s book author Caroline Kusin Pritchard as we dive into storytelling - the craft, the industry, the creative life - with fellow kidlit authors, publishing professionals, and folks outside the children’s book world. Storytelling happens in so many spheres beyond books, and we will draw insights and connections from everywhere to improve our craft and lives as writers. Grab a drink, cozy up and explore storytelling with creative minds inside children’s publishing and beyond.

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Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - books
01/08/2025
#97

Spotify

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Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://www.prettyokmaggie.com/
2 shares
https://www.teachandtransform.org/
2 shares

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 58%

Publication history

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Ep. 37: Dan Santat, Joanna and Caroline on Launch Day, the State of Publishing and Hope

Episode 37

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 • Duration 01:05:57

Dan Santat joins Joanna and Caroline to celebrate the launch of their book The Day the Books Disappeared! They share an honest conversation around the impacts of book banning, challenges within the publishing industry at large, and the need for art that continues to push back.

To snag swag and copies of The Day the Books Disappeared signed by both Joanna and Caroline, order from Linden Tree Books

To get swag and a signed, personalized copy by Caroline, order from Politics and Prose

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Ep. 36: Conflict: Jacqueline Woodson on Organic Discovery and How Picture Books Are the Ultimate Teacher

Episode 36

Tuesday, June 10, 2025 • Duration 56:56

Here are some highlights from our episode with the #1 NYTimes bestselling, National Book Award-winning, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson:

Starting stories with questions
Writing "quiet" books that speak loudly
The wisdom of young people, especially before that wisdom is silenced
Deconstructing “show don’t tell”
How to write about complicated topics with honesty and hope
Separating yourself as a writer from the character and the story
The questions Jackie is wrestling with right now
Some things that have (and haven’t) changed about publishing

Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for adults, children, and adolescents. She is best known for her National Book Award-Winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her picture books The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly were NY Times Bestsellers. After serving as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2018–19. She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2020. Later that same year, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Links from the episode:

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Ep. 27: Setting: Liz Garton Scanlon on Creating Context and Chasing Stories Through a Dreamscape

Episode 27

Tuesday, September 10, 2024 • Duration 01:08:30

Here are some highlights from our conversation with award-winning, bestselling author Liz Garton Scanlon:

📚 Why setting is not relevant only in hsitorical fiction or fantasy and how it impacts every single experience of ourselves and our characters

📚 Setting as context, and reverse engineering elements of craft

📚Honoring the rhythms of being a s l o w writer

📚 Stories emerging in a dreamscape

📚 How what we know about our fledgling stories becomes self-perpetuating; ask the questions questions, follow the pathways

📚 What to do with envy in a publishing career

Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of numerous beloved books for young people, including picture books Frances in the Country; Kate, Who Tamed the Wind; One Dark Bird; the Caldecott honored All the World, and many others, illustrated by some of the very best artists in the business. She's also co-authored several books with her pal Audrey Vernick, including the hilarious Bob, Not Bob, and the upcoming World’s Best Class Plant. Scanlon’s middle grade novels are The Great Good Summer and Lolo's Light, and her delightful chapter book series Bibsy Cross debuted in 2024. Liz has taught at Austin Community College, the Writing Barn, the Writers’ League of Texas, and at countless schools and conferences. She currently serves on the faculty and is faculty co-chair of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, but lives in Austin, Texas.

Liz's Facebook: Liz Garton Scanlon

Liz's IG @LizGardenSalad

Liz's Website:

Ep 26: Theme: Minh Lê on Burying Telephone Wires and Leaving Space for Connection

Season 2 · Episode 26

Tuesday, August 27, 2024 • Duration 58:40

Highlights from this episode include:

Starting with a story and discovering theme along the way
Propping up a story with telephone poles and burying the wires in between
Leaving space for readers to lean in and discover things for themselves

Minh Lê is the award-winning author of household favorites Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), Real to Me, The Blur, Lift (an Eisner Award nominee). He also writes popular middle grade graphic novels, including Green Lantern books and Enlighten Me. He is also a has been a contributor to a number of national publications including the New York Times, The Horn Book, HuffPost, NPR, Book Riot, and Reading Rainbow, and was until very recently, on the Board of We Need Diverse Books. He's also on the faculty of the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

IG: @bottomshelfbks

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Ep 25: Theme: Laurel Snyder on Maintaining an 8 year-old Brain and Creating in the Face of Capitalism

Season 2 · Episode 25

Tuesday, August 20, 2024 • Duration 54:47

We're thrilled to introduce our first guest of Season 2, the brilliant author Laurel Snyder. Highlights in this episode include:

Theme bumping against character, setting, plot and more in order to find its path
Writing from the heart in a capitalist system
Writing like a cook, not a baker
Why the outline changes the minute she starts writing
The realities of loving, and envying!, authors like Kate Messner

Episode links:

Laurel's episode on the Commonplace Podcast with Rachel Zucker

The Ezra Klein Show podcast episode with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy

Laurel Snyder is the beloved author of many picture books and novels for children, including National Book Award nominee Orphan Island, the Geisel Award winner Charlie & Mouse, and the Sydney Taylor Award winner The Longest Night. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program. She lives in Atlanta with her family and can be found online at laurelsnyder.com.

IG: @ohmylorelai

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Ep 24: We're back! Caroline and Joanna Kick off Season 2

Season 2 · Episode 25

Tuesday, August 13, 2024 • Duration 21:49

In which we share ways we've taken our KLHH guests' advice to live life as inspiration for craft, and attempt to buckle down for this upcoming year - because the year actually follows the academic calendar, right?

We've got things cooking for you this season, and we hope we can find ways to connect with our listeners more. One way you can do that is by dropping your questions for upcoming guests on our KidlitHappy Hour IG! We're excited to be back for Season 2 - we've already got some gems ready for you!

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Ep. 23: Reflections: Joanna and Caroline on Taking Leaps That Make No Sense and Our Favorite Moments From This Past Year

Season 1 · Episode 24

Tuesday, June 25, 2024 • Duration 01:11:34

It’s our final episode of the inaugural season of Kidlit Happy Hour!!! Join us as we surprise one another with favorite moments from each episode, reflect on the season, and talk through where we’re going from here.

We will officially be back in August with our second season that is PACKED TO THE BRIM with brilliant minds across kidlit. In the meantime, be sure to follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen and catch up on any episodes you missed!

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Ep. 22: Finding Audience: Claribel A. Ortega on Cultivating Real Community and No "Little Book Energy"

Season 1 · Episode 23

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 • Duration 01:01:42

Highlights from our conversation with NYTimes bestselling and award-winning author Claribel A. Ortega:

The #1 way to connect to your audience
Claribel's tried and true mantra in publishing
Risks and benefits of sharing your writing journey online
Why writing your interests into your stories is a smart bet
The joys of trolling (not the kind you may be thinking) and why she loves receiving "hate mail" from readers
The brilliant approach to making self-promo work for you
Why supporting the writing community is everything, and focusing on online conversation vs. discourse
Ways to cultivate in-person community
What it's like drafting in Windings 3...

New York Times Bestselling and award-winning author, Claribel A. Ortega is a former reporter who writes middle-grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she's not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she’s co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club. Claribel is a Marvel contributor and has been featured on Buzzfeed, Bustle, Good Morning America and Deadline. Claribel’s NYT Bestselling debut middle grade novel Ghost Squad is being made into a feature film. Her latest book Witchlings (Scholastic) was an Instant NYT and #1 Indie Bestseller. Her graphic novel Frizzy with Rose Bousamra was winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children's Text and an Indie Bestseller. Instagram, X and Tiktok @Claribel_Ortega Twitch @radbunnie Website at claribelortega.com

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Ep. 21 Finding Audience: Emily Lyman on Reframing Self-promo and Why Good Marketing is Storytelling

Season 1 · Episode 22

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 • Duration 54:17

Some highlights from our conversation with marketing guru Emily Lyman:

Reframing self-promotion as a celebration with your community
Individuals understand their “brand”
Good marketing IS storytelling
Why sharing your values, even if controversial, generates more loyal connections and community
Empathetic marketing

Emily spent nearly a decade working in-house with global publishers such as Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster managing both corporate and title marketing initiatives. Emily is now the CEO and Founder of Branch and Bramble, a digital marketing company. As an award-winning data artist, Emily specializes in blending data with heart and values to create meaningful audience connections for brand partners which include Patagonia, Paramount, and Penguin Random House. She's worked with companies with household names to individual authors just trying to get their books out in the world. She also runs the Mountain Brook Inn in the Catskills in upstate New York.

Branch and Bramble

Book influencer guide

IG @emilylyman

LinkedIn @Emily Lyman

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Ep. 20: Finding Audience: Cynthia Leitich Smith on Story as a Circle and Making Magic Out of Nothing

Season 1 · Episode 21

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 • Duration 01:00:53

Here are select highlights from our conversation with NYtimes bestselling, award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith:

Story as a circle, gathering, and communal effort
Figuring out where your voice can best serve and where your heart beats with hope
Building on “and” instead of “vs”
Inviting people into the conversation AND being a part of the conversation
Social media dynamics as both tricky and powerful
Approaches to book promotion that start locally
How we can never surrender progress made by generations before
Only asking kids to take on battles we’re willing to engage in ourselves

Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) is a NYTimes bestseller, 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Her titles include HEARTS UNBROKEN, which won an American Indian Youth Literature Award, the anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED, an Indigenous PETER PAN retelling titled SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, HARVEST HOUSE, which is one of five Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel, and—the BLUE STARS series, also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami. Cynthia looks forward to ON A WING AND A TEAR for middle graders. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperChildren’s.

Website: https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/

IG: @cynthialeitichsmith

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