Writers & Illustrators of North Carolina

Allan Wolf 's The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic received its sixth starred review from School Library Journal, and has been nominated for the 2012 NCSLMA Young Adult Book Award in both the Middle School and High School categories.

John Bemis was named News & Observer Tar Heel of the Week. John's new book The Prince Who Fell from the Sky debuts on May 22nd, with a launch party in Hillsborough, NC on June 2nd.

WINC continues to grow and welcomes new members Carrie Ryan and Beth Revis.

WINC welcomes its newest author-member, Monika Schröder. Monika recently presented at the 2012 North Carolina Reading Association Conference along with WINC members Kelly Starling Lyons, Stephen Messer, Frances Dowell and John Bemis.

Clay Carmichael's Wild Things received nominations for the 2012-13 California Young Reader Medal and Georgia Children's Book Award. Carole Weatherford will be featured speaker at the GBCA 43rd Annual Conference on Children's Literature.

Pansie Hart Flood was honored in The Brown Bookshelf's 28 Days Later campaign.

The New York Times Sunday Book Review featured Jackie Ogburn's Little Treasures: Endearments From Around the World. 'Little 'Light of My Hearts (Arabic') and 'Little Fatties' (Chile) will relish the experience.'

USA Today called Kelly Starling Lyons's Ellen's Broom "a heartwarming story about how a young girl discovers the symbolic value of a broom....Daniel Minter's vividly colored block prints are brilliant," and SLJ's Barbara Auerbach writes, "[this] beautifully illustrated Reconstruction story explores the African-American tradition of jumping the broom."

Carole Weatherford was among a group of North Carolinians who received the 2010 North Carolina Award, the highest civilian honor the state bestows. WINC only recently received this photo, below. Watch her here.

Featured books by WINC authors Kelly Starling Lyons, Eleanora E.Tate & John Bemis appeared in February 2012's Carolina Parent.

Jackie Ogburn's Little Treasures: Endearments From Around the World, illustrated by 2012 Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka has been named a 2012 ALA Notable Children's Book. Allan Wolf''s The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic & Frances Dowell's Ten Miles Past Normal made YALSA's 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.Ten Miles Past Normal was also selected as a noteworthy book for children and teens by Capitol Choices 2012.

WINC was nicely represented by Allan Wolf, Jackie Ogburn, Stephen Messer and Barbara Younger at the Children's Literature Symposium in Chapel Hill.

Frances Dowell's Ten Miles Past Normal was a 2012 Teen Choice Book of the Year Nominee. Frances Wood's novel When Molly was a Harvey Girl has been nominated for a 2012-13 Lamplighter Award.

Allan Wolf 's The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic was named a Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of 2011and received its fifth starred review from Library Media Connection.

Eleanora E.Tate has received The Circle of Elders Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc, and she is represented in Lenoir-Rhyne University's What Writers Do anthology.

Jackie Ogburn's Little Treasures: Endearments From Around the World, illustrated by Chris Raschka (January 2012), earned a star from Publishers Weekly: "The message about familial love being a universal human trait is clearly and joyfully articulated; it's hard to imagine a sweeter concept."

Clay Carmichael's far-flung fans in St. Vincent, The West Indies, enjoying Wild Things.

Allan Wolf and Alan Gratz et al at the 11th Annual NCSLMA conference in Winston-Salem, N.C.

A Flight of Angels, a graphic novel written by YA authors Louise Hawes, Holly Black, Bill Willingham, Alisa Kwitney and Todd Mitchellin and illustrated by award-winning fantasy artist Rebecca Guay, debuts in November 2011. "A riveting tale in the tradition of The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales," each of the collected stories comments on the concept of angels as heroes, lovers, protectors or killers.

Virginia Wright-Frierson will receive the 2011 NC Sorosis Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, given by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Frierson will be the sixth recipient of the award which honors a NC published woman writer for outstanding creative writing.

WINC welcomes new member Stephen Messer, author of Windblowne and The Death of Yorik Mortwell : "This slim novel packs plenty of chills...a classic underdog story with a little extra macabre seasoning. Youngsters who cut their teeth on Edward Gorey will find this tale of death, redemption, and mischief just to their liking." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Allan Wolf is one of 32 poets given one day to create a poem based on a selected photograph and including three words from a previous poet's poem. "The result," Allan writes, "is a romping game of Poetry Tag." P*TAG, a teen e-anthology, features Wolf and colleagues Janet Wong, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sara Holbrook, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Betsy Franco, Helen Frost and others. Readers can play P*TAG on their own here.

Allan Wolf's The Watch That Ends the Night: Voyage of the RMS Titanic received stars from The Horn Book, Booklist & Kirkus, who wrote: "a lyrical, monumental work of fact and fiction." Booklist raved: A “masterpiece. Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Everyone should read it. Outstanding, insightful back matter completes this landmark work.”

The White City, John Bemis' third and final book in his Clockwork Dark series debuted on August 23rd. Kirkus wrote: "...this unique, ambitious American fantasy comes to a satisfying end that would please even John Henry."

The 2011 paperbacks of Joyce Moyer Hostetter's novels Blue and Comfort feature bright, re-designed covers.

WINC welcomes new member Maureen Crane Wartski, author of Yuri's Brush with Magic, the award-winning A Boat to Nowhere and many other novels.

Clay Carmichael's young adult novel Brother, Brother was sold to Roaring Brook, pub date 2013. Her novel Wild Things recently received a Sakura Medal nomination (Japan).

SLJ says Alan Gratz's new novel Fantasy Baseball is "chock-full of whimsical references to children’s literature, the plot builds rapidly with mile-a-minute action and well-drawn sports scenes."

HarperCollins has released Donna Washington's Little Rabbit's Kwanzaa illustrated by Shane Evans. Donna says, "It is not about Kwanzaa, it just happens at Kwanzaa time. It is about how dreams and determination can move an entire community."

The Bake Shop Ghost, by WINC's Jackie Ogburn, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in the Emerging Film-maker Showcase at the American Pavillion. Lorette Bayle directed this short film about a haunted bake shop, which stars Kathryn Joosten and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Watch the trailer here.

Carole Weatherford's Becoming Billie Holiday was a Bank Street College 2009 Best Children's Book and earned a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award. Sean Qualls won a CSK Illustrator Honor Award for illustrating Carole's John Was a Jazz Giant.