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Articles by Trisha Speed Shaskan
Storystorm 2026 Day 12: Trisha Speed Shaskan Teaches, Coaches and Tries New Things
by Trisha Speed Shaskan During the summer of 2005, because I had taught creative writing classes to children, I was hired to teach mystery writing. The catch was: I didn’t have a clue as to how to teach it. But I loved Sherlock Holmes. And I had a motive: I needed the income. So, I read a craft book on mystery writing and studied a book on how to teach the subject to kids. One approach was to write the mystery backwards (plotting vs. pantsing).
Apply for the Kate Dopirak Award, Picture Book Writers!
Dear Picture Book Writers, you may know that I serve on the Rutgers University Council of Children’s Literature and help organize our annual conference. Back in 2017, we selected a newly-published author, Kate Dopirak, to be our “Success Story Speaker,” as she had been a mentee at our conference. We also knew her to be a warm, enthusiastic and engaging presenter. Sadly, Kate passed away the following year.
Library Reflections: the Winona Public Library
During the summer, especially on rainy days when we couldn’t swim in the lake or play at the park, my brother, sister and I piled into the station wagon. Our mother drove us downtown to the Winona Public Library where we walked up the stairs between two marble columns, past the tall doors, into the entrance of the white, domed building. We rushed, but didn’t run, downstairs to the children’s section.
Inside the Studio with Xindi Yan, Illustrator of The Itty-Bitty Witch
The Children’s Book Review | October 2, 2019 Xindi Yan grew up in a small city called Wuhu in China, and like Betty, she was always the smallest in her class. Standing a little shy of five feet, she still can’t reach the high shelves in grocery stores and sometimes finds that shoes made for kids fit her best. But her size didn’t stop her from chasing her big dreams of being a published artist in New York City.
THE ITTY-BITTY WITCH
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Storystorm 2019 Day 19: The Shaskans Stop, Collaborate & Listen
by Trisha Speed Shaskan & Stephen Shaskan Writing is often thought of as a solo process. Picture a beret-clad, tortured artist in a dimly-lit room typing on a laptop with a bottle of Absinthe on hand. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Every book is made by a team—the author and editor for starters. So why not collaborate with someone from the start of your story? Since we first met while working at an elementary school, we’ve been collaborators.
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