Mills College Summer Seminar:  Writing and Publishing Children’s and Young Adult Fiction with Kathryn Reiss

Award-winning author of 17 books for young adults, Kathryn Reiss, introduces a new, two-week summer seminar in writing and publishing children’s and young adult fiction. Created especially for adults interested in publishing for a middle-grade and teen audience, this intensive seminar is designed to provide a focused environment for learning about and creating fiction for young readers.*

The seminar will present a varied and wide-ranging study of the craft of fiction for middle-grade and young adult readers.  Students will write and share in-class crafting exercises as well as outline a complete novel for children or teens, and write at least the first two chapters of this novel.  Additionally, the course will look at the ins and outs of publishing and the current market for children’s books, the history of children’s literature, and special issues in writing for young readers.

Guest speakers will be included each week. Faith Adiele, currently Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College, will speak the first week; Adiele is the co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology (The New Press) for college and high school classrooms and author of two 6th-grade readers on contemporary Africa. Possible other guest topics may include:  Current Issues in Publishing, Challenges faced by Young Adult Librarians and Booksellers, Taboo Topics and Banned Books.  

Dates: June 20–July 1, 2011
Schedule: M-F 10 am-3 pm (hour lunch break 12-1)
Course Information: This course is open to adults interested in learning to write fiction for children and young adults; no experience is required.

Cost:  $1,000
(DISCOUNT IF REGISTERED BEFORE MARCH 15)
To register: Print out the registration form, fill it out and send to address indicated with full payment. DISCOUNTED COST for registration by March 15: $950.  Cost after March 15 through May 1: $1000.

For more information on the class contact Kathryn Reiss at kreiss@mills.edu
For more information about registration contact: Cynthia Scheinberg at cyns@mills.edu

*A select number of spaces have been reserved for Mills students. Mills students taking the class for credit will have an additional three weeks to write three additional chapters of their novel—which will be submitted weekly for review by the instructor.  The summer course for credit fee is $2500; some Mills students may be eligible for scholarships. Interested Mills students should contact Cynthia Scheinberg for more information.

Sample Syllabus:

Writing and Publishing Children’s and Young Adult Fiction