Tag: Diversity

See you at NCTE 2024?

Padma VenkatramanLeave a comment

Looking forward with gratitude to connecting with #teachers #educators #librarians and the #kidlit community at #NCTE2024 in Boston. My excitingly hectic schedule begins on Thursday 11:30 Rm 204 A with a panel on Ecoliteracy, moderated by Nora Shalaway Carpenter and featuring Margarita Engle and Jewel Parker Rhodes, along with Karina Iceberg, Russ Mayo and Gabriel Valdez.

On Friday, I moderate a panel about Diversifying Verse, with speakers Lisa Stringfellow, Valerie Bolling and Suma Subramaniam, starting 11/22 3:30 p.m. in Room 162 B.

Saturday 1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. I will be sharing a signing table with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, who will sign copies of NIGHT WAR, while I sign galleys of SAFE HARBOR which Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House will be giving away at PRH booth #1000 in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center Exhibit Hall A (free to all who line up)!

Almost right after that signing, I’ll have another signing kindly hosted by Highlights Foundation, for which my publisher Penguin Random House has generously donated copies of BORN BEHIND BARS for a free giveaway! Join me 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Highlights Booth #131 on Saturday.

Sunday morning is packed! Educator Melissa Thom moderates a panel in Room 157 B at 9:00 a.m. My fellow panelists are Amina Luqman-Dawson, Erin Sonderberg Downing, Jennifer A Nielsen, Christina Soontornvat and Donna Barber Higuera.

Rushing off after that panel onto my grand finale, a panel moderated by Alison Green Myers and Alexandra Villasante, of the wonderful Highlights Foundation, Sunday morning 10:30 a.m. Room 103, with fellow panelists Christopher Paul Curtis and Daniel Nayeri!

Met me (or missed me) and would like to schedule a keynote, writing workshop or invite me to your school for an author event? I’m delighted to offer new workshops and talks focusing on conservation, ecology, mental health awareness, environmental racism or deepening our appreciation of nature. To arrange a visit, in-person or virtual, please reach out to my marvelous speaking agency, The Author Village: https://theauthorvillage.com/presenters/padma-venkatraman/

August Anthologies

Padma Venkatraman2 Comments

If you’re reading this, hope you’re having a wonderful summer. I am having a hectic one! In this short post this August, I wanted to share a list of august upcoming anthologies that I’m honored to be part of. But first, I am super excited to share that my next novel, SAFE HARBOR, is already available for pre-order! I was so moved to receive this wonderful blurb :

“Safe Harbor is an exquisite verse novel by one of my favorite poets. I fell in love with each heartfelt page. The perfect blend of personal and STEM themes is truly amazing.” – Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor winning author of The Surrender Tree, and Young People’s Poet Laureate Emeritus

Unlike my previous novels, SAFE HARBOR is set in Rhode island, and it’s the first of my books that draws on my time as an oceanographer. Within the vast field of marine science, I focused on pollution prevention, and this book is about a girl who rescues a baby seal that is stranded on a beach and that has almost lost its life because it is entangled in plastic. There weren’t a lot of BIPOC women in this field when I received my doctorate; so there are a lot of BIPOC female scientists in this book, and I hope it will be loved by readers, as much as I absolutely loved weaving together my love for science and my love for literature as I wrote this story. You can pre-order a copy and learn more about the book here.

With Banned Book Week coming up next month, I’d like to start my august anthologies list with BANNED TOGETHER, a YA anthology coming in 2025 from Holiday House, edited by Ashley Hope Pérez, activist, teacher, and author of OUT OF DARKNESS. It’s a collection of diverse types of writing ( fiction, memoir, poetry, graphic narratives, essays, and other genres) that explore the unprecedented censorship that book creators are facing right now, which addresses what we lose as a society when young readers are prevented from accessing books in which they can see themselves represented respectfully. And there’s more – it also has a marvelous list of resources that Ashley has put together (e.g. tips from the Vandegrift Banned Book Club and other teen activists, as well as extensive recommended book lists, a How to Start Your Own Little Free Library flier, etc.) to empower those who wish to actively fight extremist book challenges. In the words of the one and only Laurie Halse Anderson, Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Winner, and author of the Speak, which was one of the first YA books I read and a book that has been subjected to book banning, “This stunning book is the antidote we need against the hate-based book banners bent on destroying our freedoms. Read it, share it, and lift your voice to support everyone’s right to read.”

JUST YA is the brainchild of Prof. Sarah J Donovan. As part of my my charitable contributions for 2024, I sent her a short story, which can be accessed free of charge, along with other writers’ work, via her online resource at Open OkState which will be live September 2nd. This open-access collection encourages readers, teachers, parents, teachers and other educators to engage with literature written by diverse voices.

Poetry was my first love – and I still love writing poetry. So it’s always a joy to be invited to participate in any #poetryanthology put together by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. I was thrilled to write a poem called JOB JUGGLER, inspired by my “jobs” as an oceanographer and as a writer, for inclusion in  CLARA’S KOOKY COMPENDIUM OF THIMBLETHOUGHTS AND WONDERFUZZ, which will be released this fall. Proceeds from the sale of this book go to charity, which shows you that Janet and Sylvia aren’t just amazing poets – they are also amazing people.

Last but not least on my list is ALL THE LOVE UNDER THE VAST SKY, a YA anthology celebrating love in all its forms, edited by Kip Wilson, author of WHITE ROSE and THE MOST DAZZLING GIRL IN BERLIN. This “enchanting, genre-crossing anthology delivers something for every reader with unique characters, global settings, and a dazzling mixture of myth, historical, speculative, and contemporary fiction” and is scheduled for release in January 2025.

Teacher Resources

Padma Venkatraman1 Comment

This spring began with so many delightful bits of news: The Bridge Home received another award – The Jerry, presented by WJRC! Born Behind Bars is also on Georgia’s state award list! I’ve been doing a lot of virtual visits, and over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing more.

On my slides, I quote from a lot of articles I’ve written about various aspects of diversity in the field of children’s and YA literature. I also point out that there are plenty of resources on this website for librarians and educators who’d like to use my books in classrooms. However, please note that many of the links may NOT work because of your school / library server. There’s nothing that can be done at my end to help solve that. However, most of the links can be accessed via my padlet.

So please click on this link for now, and thanks for your patience. You an also access many of my videos, including general writing prompts, via my YouTube channel and writing prompts may also be found on the COOKING UP STORIES blog that I write for the Highlights Foundation the first Friday of each month, in which I come up with a writing prompt and it’s paired with a colleague’s book and a delectable recipe by Chef Amanda. As for general diversity resources, an annotated list of some of my articles is below:

  • Weeding out racim’s invisible roots (SLJ) which was one of the most widely-read articles in School Library Journal
  • Compassion, as well as correctness (for Horn Book)
  • Accept, don’t just tolerate (on the importance of including religious diversity, for Kirkus Reviews)
  • My quarantine story (for PW)
  • Classics, colonization and a call for change (Nerdy Book Club)
  • No problem with problem books (about gender inequity in kidlit, for YA Wednesday)
  • A list of awards the celebrate underrepresented and marginalized voices / books for young people (SLJ)
  • Golden silence, gilded words (about microagressions, on author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations blog)
  • Honoring the history of those who strove for diversity in our field and in our country (WNDB Walter Award acceptance speech, in a way – although the year I won it was the year COVID struck and the ceremony was cancelled)!
  • One of my very early books of nonfiction which was published before I considered myself an author, featured by Renaissance Learning
  • Essay on what writing and reading mean to me in 2022, especially in the context of book banning
  • The Importance of Reading Widely and Reading Beyond One’s Own Experiences (published in Brightly)
  • Chat with Colby Sharp about Born Behind Bars (a parent’s magazine book of the month selection), books featuring incarceration, and more
  • Expanding Our Embrace: Including Stories with International Settings
  • Better and Verse (about verse novels)
  • Diverse Verse (a website that I started which has grown into a marvelous group of poets and educators)
  • Authors Take Action
  • Padma Venkatraman on Voice
  • Speaking as a diversity educator