Cheers to author and Writing Barn success story, Anita Yasuda! She is celebrating her new book, UP, UP, UP!: JUNKO TABEI’S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB with illustrator Yuko Shimizu, out with Clarion/Harper Collins in 2024.
Anita workshopped the manuscript for her forthcoming book in Nancy Churnin’s Writing Barn class, Building a Bio That Breathes. For all of our upcoming classes, including sessions on writing picture book biographies, click here.
Please tell us a bit about your new book!
UP, UP, UP!: JUNKO TABEI’S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB with illustrator Yuko Shimizu is out with Clarion/Harper Collins in 2024. This lyrical nonfiction biography explores Junko’s indomitable spirit and examines her humanitarian and environmental work and legacy. Junko Tabei’s life inspires children because she taught us that we could achieve our goals just like her, one step at a time.
How long have you been writing/working on this specific project?
Research began in 2018 with Junko’s many autobiographies and watching interviews with Junko in Japanese and English. Then, I spoke with a member of the original Everest team! What a thrill that was. I talked to a woman who guided Junko on her Canadian hikes and spoke with Junko’s family through her. I talked to Junko’s colleagues at the non-profit humanitarian organization, the Himalaya Trust of Japan, which Junko helped found. Through this NPO, she worked directly with Nepalese villagers. One project saw members planting apple trees in Nepal so that women in villages that hikers passed through would have another income source. The group also oversaw the building of a waste disposal plant. Even then, Junko recognized that garbage on Everest was an issue.
Where did the seeds of the stories come from?
The seeds for Up Up, Up were planted when I was a High School student in Japan in the 1980s and learned about Junko Tabei. And later, when I taught in northern Japan in a town similar to where Junko grew up. Though I’m not a mountain climber, I am an avid hiker, and I credit people such as Junko for inspiring me to get outside and explore more.
What is your connection to The Writing Barn and/or Bethany Hegedus’ Courage to Create Community?
Over the years, I have taken several webinars and six-week classes at the Writing Barn. The online courses kept me sane during the pandemic by connecting me to a larger writing community. This book on Junko Tabei was workshopped with the incomparable Nancy Churnin in her ‘How to Write a Biography’ class. Nancy was an excellent teacher who made each class enjoyable and engaging. She also offered insightful feedback. I am still in contact with some writers I met in this class.
What takeaway will you carry far beyond this good news as you continue to build and develop your career?
Be willing to learn, take a chance, and be ready to share your work and listen to other creators. As I continue to create books for children, I look for ways to improve my writing skills, and online classes such as those offered by the WB are part of this journey.
Any advice for writers/creatives having trouble staying the course while pursuing their goals?
First and foremost, believe in yourself. It is a challenging business at any level. Write because you want to, love to, and can’t live without doing so. On a concrete level, I am a big fan of planners. I like physical planners and fill mine with inspirational quotes and pictures of places, flowers, and people. I write down small daily goals and larger yearly goals. And I write down steps about how I will achieve those goals. If you give up, your dreams won’t be realized. So, stay the course. Keep writing. I want to read your stories.
Who in the kidlit world are you currently reading, excited about forthcoming books?
I’m reading books by Alice Faye Duncan, Selina Alko, Jyoti Gopal, and Kyo Maclear.
I’m excited about Writing Barn alumni Meghan P. Browne’s picture book- The Bees of Notre Dame, fellow Red Fox Lit author Nydia Armendia-Sánchez’s Frieda Kahlo’s Crown, and my friend Karen M. Greenwald’s Mud Angels.
Where can readers order your book?
UP, UP, UP!: JUNKO TABEI’S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB is available for preorder wherever you buy books. It will be released in 2024. Interested writers, teachers, and librarians can follow my Instagram. This year I will post a behind-the-scenes look into my picture book research for Up, Up Up and some exciting travel reports from Japan and possibly Nepal.
Anita Yasuda lives in the rolling hills near Toronto, Ontario. She loves crafting lyrical fiction and nonfiction picture books.
After high school in Japan, she studied the history and culture of East Asia and South Asia at Victoria College, University of Toronto. She worked in educational publishing after graduating, writing books for children, from early readers to chapter books and everything in between.
When she isn’t writing, Anita loves to hike with her husband, play with her dog, Beau, and read! Anita is represented by Lori Steel at Red Fox Literary.
Her picture book, UP, UP, UP!: JUNKO TABEI’S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB, is set to debut in 2024 (Clarion/Harper Collins).
So exciting, Anita! Congratulations!! I can’t wait to read UP, UP, UP!: JUNKO TABEI’S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB and share it with my students.