Traci Sorell Carole Boston Weatherford

Episode 375: Bringing Omitted BIPOC History to Light through Middle Grade Picture Books – Interview with Traci Sorell and Carole Boston Weatherford

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Traci Sorell and Carole Boston Weatherford. Traci is the author of the critically acclaimed book We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lives in northeastern Oklahoma, where her tribe is located. Today we’re talking about her picture book Classified: The Secret… Read more »

Episode 46: BEA Recap and Publishing Industry Trends

Hey Word Nerds! Welcome to this week’s episode of DIY MFA Radio. Now that Book Expo America (BEA) is behind us, I wanted to take a look back at the conference and its notable moments and start looking ahead at the publishing industry and the trends I see coming up in the future. This year… Read more »

A Chinese Perspective on Western Books: Part One

Go to any bookstore or library in China and you’ll find hundreds of novels written in boxlike characters made up of different undulating strokes and curvy lines (like this: 爱). In a large bookstore chain like XinHua, you’ll find those same books stacked alongside a section of “foreign works,” often written in English or their… Read more »

Four Ways to Write Outside Your Perspective

Too often, as a writer, it’s easy to throw in the towel and say: “I can’t write about that, it’s not my experience.” Neither is slaying dragons, living in Victorian England, or surviving a pandemic. It would appear that experience is not necessary for an engaging narrative. In fact, we seem to want to read… Read more »