The Vindicator Journalism Workshop Prize-Winners

Wednesday
Writer Acclaimed by Fellow Writers
Michael Macko
Greenville High School
 

Fashioning Jamaican-style dreadlocks and an outfit suitable for GQ, award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis addressed students at the Vindicator Journalism Workshop at the annual Y SU English Festival on Wednesday.

The Festival, now in its 21st year, provides students from across Ohio and Pennsylvania with the opportunity to analyze and discuss seven books chosen by the Festival committee.

Curtis, author of one of this year’s books, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, discussed the experiences that led him to write his Newbery Award-winning book dealing with the 1963 Baptist church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Writers are such driven people, but I sort of drifted into it,” said Curtis. After he worked menial jobs his entire life, including factory employment and a stint as a political campaign manager, his wife urged him to take a year off and write a book.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 was the result.

“I was always told writing is something you don’t even try for,” said Curtis, who now boasts of a wide array of honors for his first novel.

Perhaps his most impressive awards are a 1996 Newbery Medal and Correta Scott King honor, but Curtis values the Golden Kite Award most. This honor, given by the Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators, is especially important to him since it is given directly by a group of writers.

Curtis is surprised and happy about the success of Watsons, but he wishes he had written his book earlier. Since the average writer only makes $5,000 a year, Curtis’s hesitation is understandable.

The movie rights to Watsons were purchased three years ago by actress Whoppi Goldberg, and a TV movie by Columbia-Tristar is anticipated.

Curtis resides in Windsor, Canada, with his wife and daughter. His next book, Bud, Not Buddy, is due out from Bantam Doubleday Dell this fall.

Wednesday
Students Learn about Japanese-American Internment during WWII
Emily Gula
Greenville High School

120,000 people forcibly removed from their homes. This is not the number of Albanian refugees fleeing from the fighting in Kosovo, but something much closer to home. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced from their homes and sent to live in concentration camps for the duration of World War II.

Lloyd Kajikawa, the National School Project coordinator for the Japanese-American National Museum, recently spoke to students participating in the YSU English Festival on Wednesday. Kajikawa discussed the hardships faced by Japanese Americans since their arrival on U.S. soil around 1885. He stated that many people are unaware of the struggles endured by Japanese Americans.

“U.S. history and the story of America cannot be fully told until everyone’s story is included in that American story,” Kajikawa said.

Kajikawa described how Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes and sent to live in concentration camps in the interior western United States. Kajikawa said that they were “forced from home, taking all that they could carry, losing all of their possessions.”

Japanese Americans were sent to the camps because many considered them a threat to the safety of the United States. Ironically, the 442nd Battalion, made up of Asian Americans who fought in the European theater during WWII, is the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.

Kajikawa said educating the public about Japanese-American history can be used as a basis for multicultural studies. By telling the story of Japanese Americans, he is trying to ensure that the stories of other ethnic groups will be heard as well.

Thursday
Noted Author Visits Youngstown
Melissa Neiheisel
Crestview

Christopher Paul Curtis spoke to a group of students from the seventh through ninth grades today at the 1999 YSU English Festival. He was there for a press conference to answer students’ questions.
Curtis’s Newbery Honor Book The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 was published in 1995. The book has received numerous awards.

Curtis says the book was not based on anything that happened to him while growing up, and it was not meant to be informative about racism or the Civil Rights Movement.

Curtis said, “You, the reader, bring as much to the book as I, the writer, do.”

The main theme of the book is actually the importance of family love.

Before Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, he floated around doing many menial jobs. His life changed when he met his wife, Kay, who inspired Curtis to become an author.

“In many ways she kind of gave birth to my writing,” he said.

He has been married to her for 22 years. They have two children, a 20-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter.

Curtis thinks the English Festival is a great opportunity for young people. His best advice for writers is, “Write. Try to write every day. The more you do, the better you will get.”

He adds, “Writing is something that takes time to develop.”

Curtis wrote one other book in the past, called Mr. Chicken’s Funny Money, which he said was terrible, and no publishers or other people have seen it.

His newest book, Bud, Not Buddy, is about a boy who lives in Flint, Michigan, where Curtis was born. The boy thinks his father lives on the opposite side of the state, but the boy lives with his mother, who runs a group home and is a slum lord. She uses him, and he wants to find his father. The book comes out in September.

Thursday
Literary Agent Speaks to Students at YSU English Festival
Stephanie Genareo
Laurel High School

Literary agent Jennifer Flannery entertained students attending the YSU English Festival on April 22. Flannery introduced students to the sometimes cutthroat world of writing and publishing.

At the beginning of the press conference, Flannery explained that a literary agent is a link between an author and the editor of a publishing house. She has been a literary agent for seven years. She has about twenty clients, including award-winning author Gary Paulsen. Flannery specializes in discovering new books and authors for children and adolescents.

During the press conference Flannery told students how she became a literary agent. She described literary agency as “the accidental profession.” She originally wanted to be an author, but she “fell into [the business of literary agencies] and fell in love with it.”

Before she became an independent literary agent, Flannery worked as a secretary for a literary agency in Minneapolis. Seeking independence from what she calls “the most boring job I had in my life,” she left Laziere for New York.

After a brief stint at Harper Books, Flannery established Flannery Literary. She now reads up to 100 manuscripts a week. She chooses books by a gut feeling, saying “If I fall in love with a manuscript, I offer representation.”

Flannery encourages young people who want to be writers to be ready for rejection. She nicknames rejection letters from editors as “badges of honor.”

Toward the end of her press conference, Flannery stated, “The only magic I’ve ever seen in the world is between a book and a reader.”

Friday
Young Journalists Learn by Experience
Amy Reynallt
Austintown Middle School

A long voyage to Birmingham by an African American family, frightening bullies, and an author’s life are just three topics young journalists can learn from the experience of an accomplished author.

Area students visited YSU Friday, April 23, where some had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Paul Curtis, author of The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. Curtis discussed his writing with the students. He said the key to writing is to practice and to love it.

“Writing is an unusual thing. It’s a strange profession. It’s something you do all by yourself,” Curtis said.

Curtis’s book, which in part deals with the Civil Rights Movement, is being used in classrooms. Although this use wasn’t intended, Curtis is pleased because he feels it is important to teach what happened when segregation was common and legal.

“I’ve learned to admire teachers a great deal. . . . It is a tough job,” he said.

Curtis has also announced that there will be a movie based on Watsons with actor Whoppi Goldberg.

As some of the final questions were asked, Curtis noted that everyone should remember family love because that, by way of his wife, is what began his accomplished, yet just beginning, career.

Friday
Literary Agent Looks for Talent
Amanda Nowotny
Mohawk High School

Literary agent Jennifer Flannery gave a press conference with students in seventh through ninth grades on Friday, Aril 22 at YSU. The students were participating in the twenty-first annual English Festival.

Flannery, 32, represents authors of books for children and young adults. Among her clients is Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet, which has sold over 5 million copies. Flannery also own Flannery Literary Agency in Chicago.

When describing what a literary agent does, Flannery said that she is a link between an author and a publisher. An agent works out business and legal matters, such as contract details. She also finds publishers interested in buying an author’s manuscript.

“I’m sort of the matchmaker,” Flannery said

Flannery, who has always loved books and reading, got her start in the literary industry when she got an internship at a literary agency in her hometown of Minneapolis.

In the two years she worked at the agency, Flannery worked her way up from intern to a paid assistant to the president of the agency. She found her work  interesting and fell in love with it.

In 1992 Flannery moved to New York City and began working as an editorial assistant at Harper-Collins Publishing. She found she missed working with writers and hated her job.

Then a call came one day from Gary Paulsen. Paulsen, who had worked with Flannery in Minneapolis, no longer had an agent, and he wanted Flannery to start an agency to represent him.
Flannery, only 25 at the time, was scared, but she knew that is she didn’t do it, she was going to regret it every day of her life.

“I thought this was one of those incidences where you have to take a risk,” Flannery said.

Flannery bought the least expensive computer and fax machine she could find. She started Flannery Literary Agency in her kitchen.

Today, Flannery receives about 100 letters and 25 manuscripts a week from authors. After deciding to represent an author, Flannery makes copies of the manuscript and sends them with a submission letter to publishers.

The average first book from an author can sell for between 6 and 7 thousand dollars. Flannery receives a 15% commission on each manuscript she sells.

Flannery chooses to represent children’s and young adult books because she knows that the best work is written for them.

“If not, it should be,” said Flannery. “We owe our young people the very best that we can give them,” she says.

Flannery has represented between 100 and 125 books, many of which have not yet been released. Her favorite is My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt.

Flannery offered advice for potential writers: Read for at least five minutes every day.

She said, “The only book you shouldn’t read is a badly written book.”

Festival of Writing 1999 Home Page