Birthdays: Walt Whitman (1819), Saint-John Perse (1887), Elizabeth Coatsworth (1893), Norman Vincent Peale (1898), Harry Mazer (1925), Al Young (1939), Phillip Hoose (1947), Svetlana Alexievich (1948), Lynne Truss (1955), Jane Green (1968), John Connolly (1968),

Saint-John Perse with the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

Elizabeth Coatsworth won the 1931 Newbery Medal for “The Cat Who Went to Heaven”

Phillip Hoose won a Newbery Honor for his children’s biography of Claudette Colvin

Svetlana Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature

Quote: “Books are our windows on the world. They permit us to safely experience other lives and ways of thinking and feeling. Books give us a glimmer of the complexity and wonder of life. All this, the censor would deny us.” ― Harry Mazer, Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers

Quote: “Writing requires, more than anything else, tremendous discipline. At the end of the day, whilst there are times when it is wonderfully creative and fun, a lot of the time it is just a job. And that means showing up whether you feel like it or not. It also means you write, whether you are inspired or not, and the only way to unlock your creativity, is to start writing.” – Jane Green

Tip: Publishing is about marketing. Be prepared to do the work. You need to promote, to sell your work. Writing the book is just the first step on a long staircase.

Jumpstart: Get a can of modeling clay and have some fun. Think about how it feels. What it looks like. What you can do with it. Write about the texture, the smell, the feelings it evokes.