Archived Event: MasterClass in Picture Books

Join us on April 28 at 6:30 pm as Melanie Florence leads this one hour workshop on the evolution of a picture book from an idea to a finished manuscript, speaking on: where to find an idea, how to figure out if the idea will work as a picture book and then how to write a good picture book.

Melanie Florence is an award-winning writer of Cree and Scottish heritage based in Toronto. She was close to her grandfather as a child, a relationship that sparked her interest in writing about Indigenous themes and characters. She is the author of Missing Nimama, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the 2017 Forest of Reading Golden Oak Award and was a finalist for the 2017 First Nation Communities READ award. Her most recent picture book, Stolen Words, won the 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, was a 2018 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award finalist and was given a starred review by Kirkus, who listed it as one of the best picture books of 2017 to give readers strength. Her other books include the teen novels Just Lucky, He Who Dreams, Dreaming in Color and her upcoming collaboration with Richard Scrimger called Autumn Bird and the Runaway. Her first middle grade novel, a ghost story called Legends of Funland, will be out in 2022.