‘Walking on Water Conference’ recommended reading list pairs L’Engle titles, modern must-reads

Bibliophiles love a good “to read” list, and we will not disappoint you now.

As part of our prep for “Walking on Water: The Madeleine L’Engle Conference” this November, conference co-director Sarah Arthur has curated a list of books you’ll want to add to your stack, post haste. The list is categorized by genre – and we encourage you to take that as a challenge to read broadly. Let’s take a cue from Madeleine, shall we?, the woman who read poetry, fairy tales, and astrophysics.

We’ve included Sarah’s Recommended Reads list as an attachment, for those who (like me!) want to print the list for easy reference. Not that we’re keeping score, but I’ve read fifteen titles (and counting) so far. Most recently, I’ve devoured 2019 Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. In my job as a school librarian, I’ve made it my life’s ambition to get as many readers as possible to discover these books (and the rest on the list!). I hope the list inspires such enthusiastic sharing with your fellow readers, too.

What have you read from this list that you’d recommend? What are you excited to read next? Comment below.

By the way, we encourage you to find these books through Books of Wonder online, in their stores, or at the pop-up bookstore at the conference. Thanks for supporting indie sellers.

In other Walking on Water Conference news: We’ve extended the deadline for early-bird registration to Sept. 15!

The inaugural Madeleine L’Engle Conference will feature hands-on workshops, panel discussions, lunch groups, live music, plenary sessions, and more. All are welcome to join this lively and generative conversation centered around L’Engle’s signature treatise on faith & art, Walking on Water.

Conference highlights include acclaimed children’s author Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins), Newbery-Honor-winner Veera Hiranandani (The Night Diary), National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi (American Street, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich), A Wrinkle in Time film producer Catherine Hand, music by award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad, and much more. The conference, in partnership with Writing For Your Life, is honored to work with collaborators We Need Diverse Books, Books of Wonder bookstore, Stage Partners, and Macmillan, as well as host venue and co-sponsor All Angels’ Church, to welcome artists, writers, readers, & students to the Upper West Side neighborhood that Madeleine called home.

Register and find more information here, including details about a Friday retreat and a special young adult discount price.

Can’t wait to see you there!

~Erin F. Wasinger for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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‘A Wrinkle in Time’ appreciation comes full circle for author Karuna Riazi

Author Karuna Riazi has been a fan of Madeleine L’Engle since she was an 8-year-old reading A Wrinkle in Time. That love for Wrinkle and its protagonist, Meg Murry, brings Karuna to the first Walking on Water Conference this fall (yay!). She’s part of the stellar panel of We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be talking about a new generation of Meg Murrys: What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire. We’re so geeked to feature her today on the blog!

Welcome, Karuna Riazi.

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?
I love how being invited — and honored as a guest! — at this conference makes me feel like my writing and reading life has come full circle. I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was eight, as my next door neighbor and long time family friend saw me browsing her bookshelves for something new. That prompted her husband — a middle school science teacher — to offer me his own copy (with the caveat that it needed to be returned, which it was … quite reluctantly) with the assurance that “I would enjoy it.”

I did, and revisited it many times after that, along with Ms. L’Engle’s other wonderful titles. Now — probably to the disbelief of my eight year old self — I get to discuss it and how I am carrying on her legacy (shivers) at the conference!

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” This quote has carried me through a lot of moments in which my love of writing for children has been demeaned, dismissed or otherwise brushed aside as “not serious craft.”

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?
When I look at Madeleine, who was a woman of faith and a woman author, I feel so deeply that I can be who she was and pass on the gift that she gave me. I can represent those communities, along with the other marginalized communities I inhabit, and stir people to wonder and to love and to unity with my words, and encourage kids to look within themselves and see the spark of magic and bravery and strength that only they have.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a great many things, as always: some YA-shaped things and some middle-grade sparks of possibility. But, if readers are searching for something more from me besides The Gauntlet, its companion The Battle, releases on August 27 from Simon and Schuster/Salaam Reads!

Thanks, Karuna — and congrats on the new release!

Before I wrap up today’s party, I’ve got two friendly reminders:

  1. Registration prices for the Walking on Water Conference increase after September 15 (yes, we extended it. If you are like us, our thoughts won’t fully turn to Fall until after Labor Day)! Get yourself signed up here.
  2. Catch up with the other We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be part of the Walking on Water Conference: Sayantani DasGupta, Heidi Heilig, and moderator Caroline Richmond.

-Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Kiranmala series’ author, Sayantani DasGupta, shares how L’Engle inspired her stories

This week, we’re excited to get to know Sayantani DasGupta, a panelist on the We Need Diverse Books panel, which will be featured at the Walking on Water Conference this November. Writers associated with We Need Diverse Books  will talk about “The New Generation of Meg Murrys – What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire,” and will feature Sayantani, Heidi Heilig, and Karuna Riazi, with moderator Caroline Richmond.

Sayantani is the author of a series of books that finds its inspiration in L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series. Hear, in her own words, how Madeleine’s work made hers soar:

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?

Everything! I’m a huge fan of both the Wrinkle in Time series and the Austin Family series. Of course my own Bengali folktale and string theory inspired Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series was very much influenced by Madeleine L’Engle’s work! In fact as a physician-writer who uses lots of space science in her fantasy series, it was Madeleine L’Engle who first taught me that stories and science can go hand in hand.

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?

As I mentioned above, L’Engle’s books were the first place I learned that science and stories are not opposites, but partners. My entire career is at the intersection of science and story (I teach, after all, in a program for Narrative Medicine). In addition, my fantasy series from Scholastic (The Serpent’s Secret, Game of Stars and the soon-to-come-out The Chaos Curse) is very much influenced by the space science and metaphysics of A Wrinkle in Time. To me, string theory and parallel universes seemed the perfect metaphor for the immigrant experience — immigrants are, to me, galaxy hoppers and space explorers!

What are you working on now?

A secret project, possibly a follow up to the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series. (Shhh!)

Thanks, Sayantani! Follow the links to several more fun endorsements of the links between her work and Wrinkle in Time:

1. Click here for an online interview at Booklist, in which Sayantani discusses L’Engle’s work.

2. Don’t miss this LA Review of Books Review of The Serpent’s Secret, in which they say the following: “Kiran’s journey through space, complete with moving mountains and black holes, felt like a wink to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (1962). The reader feels a sense of connection to other stories they have loved, while also appreciating the unique qualities of characters they have never encountered before.”

3. A Barnes and Noble Blog Interview in which she mentions both A Wrinkle in Time book and film.

4. This list of nine diverse sci-fi fantasy books to read after A Wrinkle in Time. 

One more thing: Just in case you’re on the fence, early-bird pricing goes up in just a bit! Register for the Walking on Water Conference before August 31!

–Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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STD: PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program and Madeleine L’Engle

Dear Ones,

We’re happy to help announce and promote BREAK OUT: a movement to (re)integrate incarcerated writers into literary community, an effort from The Poetry Project and the PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program.

Throughout the month of September, over two dozen local reading series in New York City—and across the country—will feature the work of a currently incarcerated writer. The BREAK OUT series culminates with the 2019 PEN America Prison Writing Awards and Anthology Launch, the evening of September 18, 2019, at the Brooklyn Book Festival. This dynamic free-to-the-public program, held at St. Marks Church in Manhattan, features awarded works by incarcerated writers staged by Margo Jefferson, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, T Kira Madden, Shaun Leonardo, and others TBA.

Madeleine was a participant in the prison writing program from their early days. When I was in college and graduate school in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I sometimes helped my grandmother, Madeleine L’Engle, with her mail. She received more than 400 letters a week at her New York apartment, Crosswicks (her home in Northwest Connecticut), and at her office at the Library of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. It was at the Library where I first came across a letter from Ahmad Rahman. The envelope’s return address was Jackson State Penitentiary with a long identification number on it, and I asked my grandmother about it.

She told me that it was from her friend. She didn’t say much more about it to me that morning, as we were sorting and prioritizing work. While she read every piece of mail that crossed her desk, some letters she answered herself and some she dictated. She answered Ahmad Rahman herself, and had done so since they first began corresponding in 1976 as part of the PEN America prison writing program. Their first exchanges of letters were cautious, testing each other and building trust across race and class and gender and circumstance. It grew to be a deep friendship whose foundation was a love of writing and words, and a commitment to truth-telling and listening, even when that is difficult.

Ahmad Rahman was released from prison in 1992 after a gubernatorial pardon. He was the first prisoner in Michigan to earn a BA while incarcerated, and he went on to earn a Ph.D. and was a beloved professor at the University of Michigan. As I organized my grandmother’s papers following her death in 2007, I kept coming across letters and would occasionally try to find him (the state called him one name; he called himself another, and so it wasn’t a straightforward search). I was able eventually to reach out to him, and he and I corresponded and even met in person (something he and Madeleine were never able to do). He died suddenly of a heart attack in 2015 at the age of 64.

As part of the culminating event on September 18th, PEN will be announcing the creation of a mentorship award named in their honor. We’re excited to be part of that and will have more news as the date gets closer.

— Charlotte Jones Voiklis

 

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Meet We Need Diverse Books’ Program Director before you see her at Walking on Water

This November’s Madeleine L’Engle event — the inaugural Walking on Water Conference — won’t merely a retrospective and celebration of Madeleine. Instead, organizers have a vision that the conference would also look ahead, amplifying and empowering artists and writers for a new generation.

Enter We Need Diverse Books, a grassroots nonprofit of children’s book lovers who advocate for a world in which every child would see themselves in a book. This vision is the reason Conference Director Sarah Arthur sees WNDB as an important collaborator.

(Read more from Sarah about WNDB in the latest edition of the Madeleine L’Engle newsletter!)

We’re fantastically honored that several WNDB authors will be participating in the L’Engle Conference at a panel titled “WNDB Presents: The New Generation of Meg Murrys—What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire.” Moderating that panel: WNDB Program Director Caroline Tung Richmond (The Only Thing to Fear).

We’re thrilled to feature Caroline today on the Madeleine L’Engle blog. Let’s get to know her better, shall we?

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?
I’m very excited to moderate a panel at this conference because A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite books when I was a girl! I’m really looking forward to celebrating the life and legacy of Madeleine L’Engle, who helped spark a deep love of science fiction in me as a kid.

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?
“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.” I love the imagery of this quote, how reading can take us on journeys not only across our own world, but throughout the cosmos. Growing up, I often felt like I’d been born in the wrong century — I wanted to live at a time when humans could explore the galaxy. I’ll likely never be able to do that in person (never say never though!), but I can still take journeys into space via books like Madeleine L’Engle’s.

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?
Meg Murry is one of the most inspirational characters in children’s literature. She has inspired generations of girls to dream big, to be brave, and to take pride in their intelligence. I hope that my own books will similarly inspire young women to become the heroines of their stories.

What are you working on now?
My next novel is a Cold War alternate history that’s set in Washington, D.C. and that features a lot of high-tech robots. It should be out from Scholastic in 2020!

Where can we read more? 
If you’d like to read more diverse SFF, feel free to check out the OurStory app!

 

Thanks, Caroline!

Meet her and the rest of the WNDB panel in NYC this November — Special early bird pricing ends August 31, so register today!

 

–Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Guest blog post: How to recognize miracles

By Molly Cantrell-Kraig

I blame Charlton Heston.

When I was a little kid, the yearly screening of “The Ten Commandments” was anticipated in our household for a number of reasons. The first of which was its role as a rite of passage to, if not
 adulthood, at least big kid status, proved through the ability to stay awake through the entire 
thing. Alas, for many years, my brothers and I would consistently conk out on the living room 
floor somewhere around Yul Brynner’s “So let it be written; so let it be done” edict.

We yearned for the year when we could finally last until the second reason: the special effects,
 chief among them the parting of the Red Sea. Now this was a miracle!! Epic. Sweeping.
Monumental. Supernatural and supernal. Seeing Chas up there on the rock, serving as the 
conduit for what God wrought below spoiled me for quite a while where miracles were 
concerned.

Would you recognize a miracle if you saw it?

Most of the time we want big and flashy, or at least it’s what we expect from our miracles. The
 quiet ones like breathing, flowers blooming or a choice parking spot opening up for us on a rainy
 day? Meh.

Folks who follow me on twitter will note that I sign off most evenings with #poetry as my
#goodnight tweet. One of my favorite poets is Walt Whitman, and his poem, Miracles is one of
 the reasons why. The poem lists a number of everyday events, observances, and experiences,
 all of which exist within a confluence of everything: “The whole referring, yet each distinct and in
 its place.”

As an example, for the women reading this, if (or when) you were pregnant, did it seem as
though every other woman on the planet was pregnant? This perception grew from your
 awareness. You were attuned to pregnancy and everything that involves bearing a child; hence,
 you recognized this experience in those who surrounded you. It’s the same with the awareness
 of miracles. The more miracles you acknowledge, the more of them that you will see.

Miracles are generated at the intersection of our internal and external worlds, through syncing 
the inner and outer environments. Through the symbiotic action of improving ourselves, we
improve our environs by default. In so doing, we affect change and provide the catalyst for
 miracles.

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that miracles are evidence of the Divine. When we take
 active steps to nurture and develop our higher selves, are we not engaging the divine within?

Taken a step farther, by engaging divinity, are we not giving it the opportunity to flex itself and to 
manifest itself in our lives?

You are the miracle.

You’re a confluence of DNA, tRNA and other helix models twirling, replicating and creating
 worlds. The fact that you exist at all is, in and of itself, a miracle. Your thoughts, desires,
 mechanical dexterity and talents are all finely orchestrated cellular wonders. You are a carbon-based life form with sentience, a conscience, and an ability to decide what your life is going to
 be. Every morning you have another 24 hours to make something happen.

Every morning is your birth day.

Today’s exercise is to give thanks for every miracle you can recognize, from the mundane to the
 phenomenal.

 

Reading L’Engle’s Time Quintet fundamentally changed the way a nine-year-old Molly viewed the intersection of divinity, science, and love. Through reading L’Engle’s books, Molly could envision a universe beyond the borders of her small town, teleporting her into a realm where love was recognized as the binding and universal force that supports and connects worlds. Seeing Meg as a flawed, yet determine heroine gave Molly an early role model in learning how to overcome one’s fears and to take risks. The chapter Miracles is an example of the confluence of love, divinity and science that extends throughout her most recent book, Circuit Train Your Brain: Daily Habits to Build Resilience. Comprised of brief chapters designed to help identify and reinforce the power each of us has within us to cultivate resilience, the book draws upon her personal experiences of overcoming numerous obstacles in her personal and professional life.

An author, media consultant, life coach and speaker, Molly Cantrell-Kraig has been recognized as one of CNN’sVisionary Women, profiled by the Christian Science Monitor, and the Shriver Report. Cantrell-Kraig has also been interviewed on the Women’s Media Center and the BBC, speaking on such topics as women, independence, gender roles and life transitions. From her beginnings as a single mother on welfare, Cantrell-Kraig is a self-described work in progress whose focus is on helping others achieve their goals by sharing her own experiences. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram as @mckra1g or on the web at www.mollycantrellkraig.co .

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Do you have something you’d like us to share with our blog readers? We are taking submissions for guest blog posts. Email: social [at] madeleinelengle [dot] com

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Glorious Impossibles: Writing ‘for children’ panel brings together rockstar, award-winning authors

Madeleine said that artists, like children, are good believers. She also denied that writing for children was any different from writing for grownups (a perspective that came up recently during Children’s Book Week).

The techniques of fiction are the techniques of fiction. They hold as true for Beatrix Potter as they do for Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Characterization, style, theme, are as important in children’s books as in a novel for grownups.  — Walking on Water

At this year’s Walking on Water Conference, we’re going deeper. We’ve pulled together a panel of authors to explore how faith–their own, and/or their characters–shows up in their’ writings, and what writing “for children” means.

Joining the “Glorious Impossibles” panel are:

Moderator Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich: Olugbemisola was a student of Madeleine’s, a story you’ve got to hear her tell.  She’s also the author of 8th Grade Superzero, a Notable Book for a Global Society and Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. She is co-author of the NAACP Image Award-nominated Two Naomis, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and its sequel, Naomis Too. Her nonfiction books include Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow, and the picture book biography Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Olugbemisola is also the editor of The Hero Next Door, a 2019 middle grade anthology from We Need Diverse Books. Visit her online at olugbemisolabooks.com and on Instagram.

And “Glorious Impossibles” panelists:

  • Ibi Zoboi: Ibi holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. Her debut novel, American Street, was a finalist for the National Book Award and has received five starred reviews. Under the same imprint, her latest YA novel, Pride, was released last fall, and, Black Enough, a collection of stories about what it’s like to be young and black in America, made its debut in January. Her middle grade debut, My Life as an Ice-Cream Sandwich, is forthcoming in late August. You can find her online at www.ibizoboi.net.

 

  • Veera Hiranandani: Veera is the author of The Night Diary, which received the 2019 Newbery Honor Award, the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award and the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. The Night Diary has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, is a New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick, and was chosen as a 2018 Best Children’s Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews, among others. She is also the author of The Whole Story of Half a Girl, which was named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asian Book Award Finalist, and the chapter book series, Phoebe G. Green. A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College’s Writing Institute and is working on her next novel. Online, you’ll find her at  www.veerahiranandani.com, on Twitter, and on Instagram.

 

Register now to hear this panel (and tons more) at the first Walking on Water Conference, Nov. 16. Details, registration, and news about a pre-conference retreat are all here. Early bird pricing ends August 31, so don’t wait!

Til then, looks like your reading list is filled up!

Happy reading,

~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Catherine Hand, David Paterson, Cornelia Duryee talk adaptations at Walking on Water Conference

When I saw A Wrinkle in Time on stage this spring, I was blown away by the ability of the performers and director to keep the truth of the story while staying true to their medium. I constantly wondered, though: How on earth did they adapt this book so well?

We’re thrilled to have a conversation about adaptations with a sterling panel of film and stage pros at the first Walking on Water Conference this November. Taking part in the “Icons of the True: Adapting Novels to Film” panel:

Photo © Tony Powell. Catherine Hand. January 22, 2018

  • Catherine Hand: Her journey with A Wrinkle in Time began when she first read the beloved novel as a young girl,dreamingof one day making it into a major motion picture. Years later, Hand met Madeleine L’Engle, establishing alifelong friendship and earning L’Engle’s trust as a steward for the film adaptation. Read about her 54-year wait to make Wrinkle into a movie in this feature that ran in Time magazine before the movie’s release.  Find her on Twitter, too: @madebyhand5. (Photo credit: Photo © Tony Powell. Catherine Hand. January 22, 2018)

 

  • David Paterson: David is a writer, professional stuntman, and adjunct professor of screenwriting for NYIT of Manhattan. His films have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca and Palm Springs Film Festivals, and have screened at over a 100 festivals worldwide. He wrote and produced the Disney hit, The Bridge to Terabithia. His latest film, The Great Gilly Hopkins, starring Glenn Close, Octavia Spencer, Kathy Bates, is now screening on Amazon and iTunes. More about David can be found at www.arcadybayent.com.

 

  • Cornelia Duryee: She writes, produces, and directs (both film and theater), and works as a casting director. She has written and directed three feature films—West of Redemption, Camilla Dickinson and The Dark Horse—and both produced and cast the first season of the popular web-series JourneyQuest. She’s also credited for introducing Madeleine to All Angels Church, where the conference will be held.

 

 

The Walking on Water Conference is at All Angels’ Church, New York City. A pre-conference retreat begins the festivities on Friday, Nov. 15, followed by the main conference events on Nov. 16. Early bird registration ends on August 31.  Register today!

~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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Guest blog post: “Are you sure you want to know the future?”

By Judith Lindbergh

“Are you sure you want to know the future?” Madeleine asked in all seriousness and waited for my response. She sat up in her four-poster bed, draped in luxuriant covers, and I sat at the edge. She was remarkably generous, inviting so many of her students into her home, nurturing and guiding us, hungry disciples at her feet. And there I was having my turn, asking her for advice about my literary life, longing to know where it all would lead.

I was very young back then. And anxious. Madeleine knew that. Anxious about life. Anxious to succeed. The kind of young woman who works hard and expects results. From herself. From the world. But Madeleine knew better.  She had experienced the random cruelty of action and reaction. She knew that there were no guarantees – not good parenting or opportunity or wealth. Not knowing the right people or accolades for your work. That there were things far more important than writing. I didn’t know all the private details of her life, but I’d heard a few things from classmates in her writing workshop. It was only faith that had gotten her through the worst of it, and a private kind of mourning that never ends. So when she leaned forward in her bed, propped against a mountain of fat pillows, and pressed my hand with hers, “What if it’s bad?” I didn’t know what to think.

It took me years to understand that life is a balance of triumphs and losses, that writing is just one part of a very complex journey.  When I sold my first novel, I thought it would change my life. And it did, but not in the way I’d expected. While I stayed home doggedly writing my next book, I was also home to raise my children. And being home with my children made me long to get out of the house. So I started teaching just once a week, sharing my love of writing with my local community.

Being a mother helped me realize something else: that creativity starts at birth, that imagination is innate, and that it absolutely must be respected and nurtured.  Watching my kids playing helped me create a creative writing curriculum that spoke to their creativity, not the expectations or requirements of adults. Together, those classes grew into The Writers Circle in New Jersey where students of all ages learn to love creative writing every day.

When I first entered the classroom, I modeled my approach on Madeleine’s, remembering all of us gathered around the old oak table holding our precious, uncertain words in our shaking hands. I remembered her generosity and gentle, supportive words, how she crafted her suggestions to suit each writer. Madeleine met each of us at our deepest need, not only as writers, but as people seeking guidance and wisdom from a woman who had touched all our hearts long before we ever met her.

I try to do the same with my students every day. At the beginning of each workshop, I welcome new writers with a short piece I wrote for Madeleine to celebrate her 80th birthday. That year our group of Madeleine-alums all wrote short pieces in her honor and handbound them into a book.  Mine reflects on the spirit that we carried from Madeleine into our own small writers group.  I encourage my students to carry on that spirit in our workshop and beyond.

Today, both my kids are teenagers, one heading off soon to college. And that new novel of mine hasn’t yet sold. So I’m polishing up another. But the rejections I’ve endured have made me a better writer and a better teacher. The struggle has given me the grit to carry on and to help others do the same.  Sometimes I remind myself that Madeleine was rejected 26 times before A Wrinkle In Time became one of the great classics of children’s literature.

If I had known the future back then, what would I have thought of what I have and haven’t achieved?  I’d have been proud of being published, that’s for sure.  But perhaps I wouldn’t have fully appreciated the most important work I do now: passing on Madeleine’s gift of guidance and sharing, of listening and accepting this long journey of writing and life every day.

Now I understand a bit better what Madeleine was telling me that day: that not knowing—either the good or the bad—is part of the mystery.

Judith Lindbergh’s debut novel, The Thrall’s Tale, about three women in the first Viking Age settlement in Greenland, released to critical acclaim in 2006. She’s the founder and director of The Writers Circle in New Jersey, facilitating creative writing for students of all ages. She traces her teaching approach to her background as a professional dancer and actress and from the lessons learned from L’Engle, with whom she studied in the early 1990s. Judith will be part of a panel at the upcoming Madeleine L’Engle Conference: Walking on Water.

Twitter and IG: @JudithLindbergh

 

Do you have something you’d like us to share with our blog readers? We are taking submissions for guest blog posts. Email: social [at] madeleinelengle [dot] com

 

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See, hear Katherine Paterson, Audrey Assad at Walking on Water Conference

Dear Ones,

Katherine Paterson and Audrey Assad! Are! Coming! And — you’re invited!

I needed to shout that news across the internet. This fall’s first Madeleine L’Engle “Walking on Water” Conference will feature these two creative minds in big ways. (!!)

First, let’s talk music: Award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad will be Musician-in-Residence at the conference!

Assad is an author, speaker, record producer, and critically lauded songwriter and musician living in Nashville, Tenn. She releases music she calls “soundtracks for prayer” on her label Fortunate Fall Records. L’Engle fans will recognize that a  number of her tracks have some L’Engle influences (like “The Irrational Season”).

You’ll hear her during the opening general session on Saturday, Nov. 16, and then later that day she’ll lead a “Music & Madeleine” discussion. She’s also a panelist for a conversation about “Listening to the Work,” along with artists Albert Pedulla and Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, moderated by Seth Little.

Til the conference, you can keep up with Audrey on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Second, feast those eyes on our keynote speaker: Katherine Paterson.

She’s the author of more than 30 books, including 16 novels for children and young people. She has twice won the Newbery Medal, for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. The Master Puppeteer won the National Book Award in 1977 and The Great Gilly Hopkins won the National Book Award in 1979 and was also a Newbery Honor Book. For the body of her work she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1998, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2006, the E.B. White Award in 2019 and in 2000 was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

As one does.

She is a vice president of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and is a member of the board of trustees for Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also an honorary lifetime member of the International Board of Books for Young People and an Alida Cutts lifetime member of the US section, USBBY. She is the 2010-2011 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

The Patersons have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Katherine currently resides in Vermont with her faithful dog, Pixie. Find her on Facebook and Goodreads — and her words in the stack of modern classics at your library.

SO.  We’ll just be over here until the conference, giddy and excited.

Conference co-director (and L’Engle scholar) Sarah Arthur previously announced details about registration, a pre-conference retreat, and more — check out those details here. The Walking on Water Conference is Nov. 15-16, at All Angels’ Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Tesser well,

Erin F. Wasinger for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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