SCBWI Podcasts

In this week's episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Kate Messner. 

New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too. Kate's titles include both fiction and nonfiction; she writes award-winning picture books, easy readers, chapter book series, and novels for young readers. Her books are frequently nominated for state book award lists and have...

In this weeks episode we are joined by Barbara McClintock!

Barbara McClintock is an American illustrator and author of over 40 books for children. Her books have received numerous awards and citations, including five New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Awards, four ALA Notable Book Citations, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Award, a China Times Best Illustrated Books Award, and a British Fantasy Award. One of her books is a ...

This week we are joined by author Kyle Lukoff and illustrator Levi Hastings! 

From Newbery Honor and Stonewall Book Award–winning author Kyle Lukoff and celebrated picture book illustrator Levi Hastings comes an “approachable, engaging” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) picture book about how people found community in a time when they had to keep their true selves secret.

“Are you a friend of Dorothy?”

In a time ...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Donna Barba Higuera!

Donna grew up in Central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, rather than dealing with the regular dust devils, she preferred spending recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky ...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Maria van Lieshout!

Maria is a Dutch-American illustrator and graphic novelist.
She was born and raised near Amsterdam, and studied Visual Communications at George Washington University in DC. Maria has illustrated and written 15 picture books for kids. Her graphic novel Song of a Blackbird is inspired by historic events, including those that affected her own family, during t...

In this episode of the podcast we are joined by Maggie Tokuda-Hall!

Maggie Tokuda-Hall has an MFA in creative writing from USF, and BA in art from Scripps College. She’s the author of numerous award winning, best-selling children’s and young adult books including Love in the Library, The Mermaid the Witch and The Sea duology, Squad, and The Worst Ronin. She has been called “... one of the most unflinching voices in contemporary genr...

In this episode we are joined by Erin Entrada Kelly!

Erin Entrada Kelly has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including the 2025 Newbery Medal for The First State of Being, 2018 Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe, a 2021 Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, the 2023 NAIBA Book of the Year Award for Those Kids From Fawn Creek, and 2017 APALA Award for The Land of Forgotten Girls, among many other honors. She is al...

In this episode we are joined by Neal Shusterman!

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award, Courage to Dream, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, the Unwind Dystology, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards, and the highly acclaimed ...

In this episode we are joined by Paul O. Zelinsky!

Paul O. Zelinsky grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, the son of a mathematics professor father and a medical illustrator mother. He drew compulsively from an early age, but did not know until college that this would be his career. As a Sophomore in Yale College he enrolled in a course on the history and practice of the picture book, co-taught by an English professor and Maurice...

In this episode we are joined by Oliver Latsch!

Translator and agent Oliver Latsch grew up bilingual in German and English in East Africa and Germany. He trained to be a scientist and had just completed his PhD in Biology in the U.K. when he was asked to help get some best-selling German children’s books published in English. This led to a career as a literary agent and translator. Since then, he has accumulated 17 publish...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Erin Lee!

Erin Lee is an elementary school teacher and artist living in Long Sault, Ontario. She graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honors degree in Fine Arts, Visual Arts. Erin has published three award-winning children’s books: Benjamin and the Backyard Beast, Out of Season, and Maggie the Magnificent. 
Erin has written short stories and novels since she was a...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by artist John Parra!

John Parra is an award-winning artist, illustrator, author, and educator, best known for his, Latino themed, children’s picture books. His work on, Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos, was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year. His MTA artcard poster, Birdhouse Subways, was displayed throughout NYC subways and his art was seen on six U...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Michael Dante DiMartino!

Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animator, producer, writer, and director. He is best known, together with Bryan Konietzko, as the co-creator of the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, both on Nickelodeon.

He has also written for podcasts and has authored novels. 

You can purchase his latest, Both Here And Gone on h...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Desmond Hall!

Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He has worked as a high school biology and English teacher in East New York, Brooklyn; counseled teenage ex-cons after their release from Rikers Island; and served as Spike Lee’s creative director at Spike DDB. Desmond has served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Margaret Finnegan!

Margaret Finnegan is the author of the Junior Library Guild Selections Sunny Parker Is Here to Stay, New Kids and Underdogs, We Could Be Heroes, and Susie B. Won’t Back Down. Her work has appeared in FamilyFun, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and other publications. She lives in South Pasadena, California, where she enjoys spending time with her family...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Dan Gutman!

New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Dan Gutman has written more than 190 books for readers from kindergarten through middle school. Dan’s My Weird School series includes 100+ titles, and has sold more than 35 million copies globally over the past 20 years. Dan also is the author of the best-selling Genius Files series, the Baseball Card Adventure ser...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Dr. Sabic-El-Rayess !

Dr. Sabic-El-Rayess first became a teacher as a young teen during the Bosnian Genocide. In a letter written by President Joe Biden himself, he wrote: “I am inspired by the bravery and strength you have shown in the face of heartbreaking tragedy and persecution.” Reflecting on Dr. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess’ award-winning memoir The Cat I Never Named (Bloomsbury, ...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Phil Bildner!

Phil Bildner is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for young people including the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor-winning middle grade novel, A High Five for Glenn Burke, the Margaret Wise Brown Prize-winning picture book, Marvelous Cornelius, and the Texas Bluebonnet Award-winning picture book Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy. Phil is also the a...

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Tracy van Straaten!

TRACY VAN STRAATEN, Founder and President

Founded in 2019, TvS Media Group LLC  is an award-winning boutique public relations and consulting firm specializing in book publishing, entertainment, and brand management, with particular expertise in children's and young adult media. Founder and President Tracy van Straaten has more than 30 years of p...