The Vindicator Journalism Workshop Prize-Winners

Wednesday
Success in Writing
Mark Cina
Boardman High School

Author Christopher Paul Curtis didn’t always know he would be a writer. The Newbery Award-winning author of The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 has been a worker in a factory, in a campaign, in a warehouse, and in customer service.

Curtis, this year’s Thomas and Carol Gay lecturer, spoke to students at the YSU English Festival, April 21, about his late blooming in literature.

“I just drifted into it,” he said. “I came to write on a different route than most writers.”

Curtis’s novel, Watsons, was one of seven books Festival participants were required to read. It is under production as a television show to star Whoopi Goldberg.

“It’s exciting, but I’m nervous,” said Curtis, who has also received a Golden Kite Award for the book. “I’ve never seen a movie that is anything like the book.”

He said he used personal anecdotes to propel much of Watsons, such as his own fascination with matches as a child. When writing, Curtis said he works from a vantage point.

“I feel you have an obligation to get and keep the reader’s attention,” he said.

A student at the University of Michigan, Curtis said he hopped from careers in law and political science. He later realized writing was his gem.

“I have so much fun,” he said of writing. “I feel like a criminal—I’m getting paid to do what I  like to do.”

Curtis said his advice for budding writers is to write prolifically.

“It doesn’t matter what you do—do it every single day,” he said. “The more you do it, the better you become.”

As for himself, Curtis said writing has influenced his life. He said he has accomplished all of his dreams.

“It’s changed my life a great deal,” he said. “I want to keep writing and take care of my children. That’s where my dreams are now.”

Wednesday
Remembering Japanese-American Contributions
Kristen Boback
Boardman High School

The story of Japanese Americans and their struggle for equality is often overlooked. This is the opinion of Lloyd Kajikawa, an educational specialist who spoke to students today at the YSU English Festival.

Kajikawa works with the Japanese-American National Museum in California, and he was enabled to attend the Festival through a sponsorship by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.

“I do this work because I think that it is a story that is still untold and unknown by many people,” Kajikawa said.

Festival participants had previously read seven young adult books, one of them Farewell to Manzanar, a story of the Japanese-Americans’ struggle during World War II.

Kajikawa discussed details of the 17 concentration camps and the approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced into camps during the war. He feels that though there are similarities between the U.S. camps and the camps in Germany, the treatment of the prisoners was quite different.

“The camps in the United States were similar to other camps in that people were concentrated. However, in the United States the camps were not adequate but had three meals a day, a lightbulb in every room, and separate bathrooms,” Kajikawa said.

Kajikawa, who earned a BA in business administration and a masters degree in teaching, spoke of several different periods of time the Japanese Americans have been discriminated against in the U.S.

 Throughout history discriminatory laws have been passed, including the 1913 Alien Land Act, which stated that a person could not buy land as an alien ineligible for citizenship, as Japanese Americans were until 1952.

“Owning land and property is really part of becoming part of a country,” Kajikawa commented.

Though Kajikawa became particularly interested in Japanese-American history in the four years he has worked for the museum, he was always interested in understanding multicultural diversity.

“United States’ history and the story of Americans cannot be fully told until everyone’s story is told,” Kajikawa said.

Thursday
Multiple Award Winner Visits Youngstown
Lauren Gallo
Boardman High School

Christopher Paul Curtis, writer of The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, recently visited YSU.

His book is the winner of many honors, such as the Coretta Scott King Award and the Newbery Honor Book Award. The book is also noted as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Book.

Curtis was the Thomas and Carol Gay Lecturer for 1999 for the twenty-first annual YSU English Festival. The English Festival was established for youth in junior and senior high school to encourage and promote writing, English, and literature. Christopher Paul Curtis was the latest in their memorable speakers for the youth of this area.

Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan, and now lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He has been married for 22 years to his wife, Kay, who was instrumental to his being able to write full-time. She handles the business end of her husband’s traveling and of his writing career.

Curtis said this makes it easier on him because “she can be the bad guy” in situations of his career.
Though Curtis did not have the opportunities school age youth today have in writing, he was pleased with the movement schools are taking.

Curtis said to new writers, “Write. Try to write every day. Writing is like anything else you do . . . . you get better at it.”

Curtis was always interested in writing and enjoyed telling stories though he never felt he was good at it.

He said, “Writing is something you develop within yourself.”

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 is the only book Curtis has published. However, his new book, Bud, Not Buddy will be out in September. Curtis is working on another book called Bucking the Sarge, which takes place in Flint.

Thursday
Author Becomes Literary Agent
Stephanie Gent
Boardman Glenwood Middle School

Jennifer Flannery originally wanted to write books. Now she reads them for a living and makes dreams come true. Flannery is a literary agent. Her agency, Flannery Agencies, represents over twenty authors.

A literary agent is the business link between authors and publishers. Flannery’s Chicago-based agency selects the best of hundreds of manuscripts weekly. However, a small percentage of those manuscripts are sent to a publisher.

Flannery represents new authors of young adult and children’s books. Flannery’s most successful client—and her first client—was award-winning author Gary Paulsen. Flannery was not always as successful as she is now. She took an internship at a publishing agency and fell in love with business. She calls it an accidental profession because she never intended to be an agent.

Flannery enjoys being behind the scenes of book production. The most gratifying thing for her is getting a new author published.

Getting a young author published is not as easy as it may sound. Sometimes major editing changes have to be made, and even then a novel may be rejected over and over. As many authors have discovered, rejection happens.

Flannery chooses the best writing and authors to represent because she believes good writing sells. Young authors are not to worry because Flannery says, “We need good writers. We’ll always need good writers.”

Friday
Area Kids Get Tips from Award-Winning Author
Sophy Walker
Struthers Middle School

In this area we have many aspiring young writers. These young people, bursting with creative ideas, need direction and advice on the basics of writing. What better person to give it to them than an award-winning author?

Christopher Paul Curtis, author of the Newbery honor book The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, visited YSU on Friday to talk to young people about writing. He was a guest lecturer, and his book was on the required reading list for the English Festival. The students were participating in a journalism workshop as part of the YSU English Festival.

Curtis lives in Ontario, Canada, and has a wife, Kay, and two children, Steven and Sydney. Curtis enjoys basketball, collecting record albums, and raising his children.

His young adult novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, has gathered many awards, including the Coretta Scott King Award and the Newbery Honor Award.

He has had several other careers, including working in a factory and warehouse. Curtis was working in a warehouse when he decided to follow his dream of becoming a writer. His wife, who is a nurse, encouraged him to quit and concentrate on writing.

“My biggest inspiration was probably my wife,” he said.

When asked how he chose the topic for his book, Curtis said, “I’m really focused on writing.”

So focused is he, in fact, that when he sits down to write, the ideas just come to him, sometimes taken from his own life. For example, when the juvenile delinquent Byron is caught playing with fire in the book, his mother nearly burns him to show how much fire hurts. Curtis said that the section is autobiographical.

Watsons also focuses on racism and the Civil Rights Movement. Curtis feels that it is important to focus on racism.

“I feel racism is still very much alive,” he said. “It is something so deeply ingrained in people that it will never go away completely.”

When asked how he felt about being a guest speaker, Curtis said, “It’s an honor to be chosen.”

He said the best part of having written this book was he “got to quit” his “real job.” He feels that much writing is too sensitive and gives “too many messages.”

His second book, Bud, Not Buddy, will be available in September. He has written another unpublished book titled Mr. Chicken’s Funny Money. Also, Whoopi Goldberg has bought the rights to make a movie based on Watsons.

Curtis advises aspiring writers to take lots of writing classes. Hopefully, the area’s children will use and benefit from this advice. Who knows? Perhaps from this very city will come another inspiring writer!

Friday
Flannery—Literary Matchmaker
Michelle Vincent
Greenville High School

Behind the scenes of great authors and their masterpieces lies an important element. Literary agents are those important people who work diligently and endlessly to connect an author’s proud work to its destiny—the publisher. Jennifer Flannery is an accomplished literary agent.

Originally an English/journalism major in college, Flannery hadn’t decided what to do with that achievement. She collected an unpaid internship in Minneapolis, which is where she “fell in love with the whole process of being a literary agent.” However, as she moved up the ladder and eventually moved to a literary agency, she found herself doing a job that wasn’t fulfilling.

Her life changed with a simple phone call. It was from Gary Paulsen. He felt under-represented as an author and requested that Flannery be his agent. She accepted the offer and established Flannery Literary 7 years ago. Now business is buzzing.

“I wonder what my life would’ve been like if Paulsen hadn’t called. . . . I though it an instant to take a risk.”

Paulsen, author of Hatchet, is her biggest client, but her client list has grown from just one to 100 to 125 in the past seven years. She receives approximately 100 query letters (requests of attention by authors) per week. Flannery claims her “gut reaction” tells her which books to accept and which to reject.

“It is a powerful relationship that I’m in the middle of,” she said.

With a literary agent, the writer is freed up to write without disruption. Flannery decides which editors would best like the books, and she takes care of all legal contract issues.

Her advice to future literary agents is, “Read every day—everything you can.”

Although literary agents are an invisible part of a publishing agency, they are the ones who are most responsible for making a book a success.

Festival of Writing 1999 Home Page