Eleven Black authors and illustrators are among 53 presenters appearing at the inaugural Decatur Children’s Book Festival this weekend to discuss family, culture, history and representation in books, as well as their experiences working with major publishers.
Free to attend, the event expects to draw fans of both children’s books and young adult literature.
Friday evening will kick off at First Baptist Church of Decatur with screenwriter LaDarrion Williams delivering an opening keynote. His first novel, “Blood at the Root,” will be published May 7 and tells the story of a teenage boy who attends a magical historically Black college, learns of his superpowers and meets his lost extended family.
Credit: Penguin Random House
Credit: Penguin Random House
Originally an independent short film, Williams adapted his screenplay into a fantasy novel with intentions to self-publish. It took two years to land a three-book deal with Labyrinth Road, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House.
Williams said receiving multiple rejections for his representations of young Black male protagonists in young adult fantasy novels was discouraging enough to cause depression.
“It felt like nothing was happening,” Williams said. “I had meetings but didn’t want to waste my time because I’d gotten my heart broken. Publishers and studio executives were ghosting me, saying they loved the story but couldn’t connect to the main character and my voice. I didn’t think any publisher would want it.”
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Williams says the cast in his short film and his book editor encouraged him to go with a major publisher rather than self publishing. There’s even a possible development deal for “Blood at the Root” to adapt into a television series.
Music journalist Karen Good Marable is bringing her first children’s picture book, “Yaya and the Sea,” to the Children’s Stage on Saturday morning. The story chronicles a five-year-old girl traveling to the beach on the first day of spring with her elder relatives on the subway.
Credit: Erik Umphery
Credit: Erik Umphery
Marable came up with “Yaya and the Sea” in 2001, in journals she kept. One of her friends couldn’t find a babysitter, so the essayist started jotting down notes from the perspective of the young girl.
Marable says using the youth voice allows her to relate to young people. 17 years later, author Denene Millner encouraged Marable to write a children’s book from those journal entries.
Credit: Tonya Engel
Credit: Tonya Engel
“I’m an auntie to many of my friends’ children,” Marable said. “I wanted to get inside the head of this child, and you have to stay in a five-year-old’s mind to learn.”
Mixed media illustrator Shamar Knight-Justice will share details during an artist presentation behind “Big Tune: The Rise of the Dancehall Prince,” a story he created featuring a Caribbean American lead character.
Credit: Shamar Knight-Justice
Credit: Shamar Knight-Justice
The self-taught artist, who is principal of Ethos Classical School in southwest Atlanta, also designed the first official Decatur Children’s Book Festival poster art.
“Forever and Always,” Justice’s latest book, came out in January. It follows a young girl who feels anxiety anytime her father leaves home. He plans to publish two more books, “Dante Plays the Blues,” and “Let’s Fly,” a spotlight on the first Jamaican-American pilot to fly around the world, this year.
“I want to create something I can see my students holding in their hands,” Knight-Justice said. “I want them to see that being a creator is attainable. When children and students see the characters, they’re able to see themselves in the figures and their stories.”
Credit: MacMillan Publishers
Credit: MacMillan Publishers
Knight-Justice said Decatur Children’s Book Festival provides aspiring authors and illustrators with tips on navigating the publishing industry.
“It’s a chance for future creatives to get ideas out of their minds and onto the page,” he said.
Black queer authors are exploring new ground in both speculative fiction and teen romance novels. Terry Benton-Walker, who penned the “Alex Wise” and “Blood Debts” series, will speak Saturday morning at the young adult stage.
Credit: Derek Blanks
Credit: Derek Blanks
“When I was a kid, we didn’t have Black queer stories in speculative genres,” said Benton-Walker, a graduate of Georgia Tech and Georgia State University. “Horror is a medium to deliver stories that are so much deeper and scarier than blood, gore and monsters.”
Julian Winters, the Decatur-based writer behind the coming-of-age-story “As You Walk On By,” is releasing “Prince of the Palisades,” a love story involving a Black prince and his male classmate at a private school, in August.
Credit: Vanessa North
Credit: Vanessa North
Winters says writing allows him to create his ideal world for his queer identity.
“It allowed me to revisit my own childhood and remember all of the things I wanted for myself and wish I could’ve seen somewhere,” he said. “We get to show a multitude of what Black is. We deserve love, happiness and joy without having to be the perfect person to get these things.”
Lisa D. Brathwaite’s picture book “Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the Ebony Fashion Fair” tells the story of Ebony magazine’s cofounder and its traveling beauty show.
Brathwaite said she wrote the book for children and adults who didn’t know Johnson’s legacy. The book also allows her to connect with other authors who look like her.
Credit: Lynn Gaines
Credit: Lynn Gaines
Brathwaite called “Miles of Style” an intergenerational conversation-starter, and said it was a dream to create.
“I was in the audience watching authors at the Decatur Book Festival who I admired talk about their process, and hoping one day that would be me,” she said. “It’s a full circle moment to share the stage and my city with other Black authors and illustrators.”
The Decatur Children’s Book Festival runs May 3-5.
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