Our Success Story Spotlight blogs were created to showcase the achievements of authors, who have studied at The Writing Barn, were able to make their dreams a reality. With The 2022 Nonfiction Kidlit Confab happening this upcoming weekend, we thought we’d share a few of the WB Success Stories joining the star-studded faculty lineup this year!
Gloria Amescua
The incredibly talented Gloria Amescua, a native Austinite, is an author, poet and very dear friend of ours. She’s taken many workshops and intensives with The Writing Barn. Gloria received both her B.A and M. Ed. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.
Her debut picture book biography about Luz Jimenéz, Child of the Flower-Song People, was started in Picture Book II and has now received many awards such as a 2022 Pura Belpré Award for Narrative, Lee& Low’s 2016 New Voices Honor Award. It was listed as a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection, ALA Notable Books, SLJ’s Best Books 2021 and was featured on many more Best of Nonfiction lists.
Check out Gloria’s website here.
Colleen Paeff
Colleen Paeff is an award-winning author from Southern California. She’s attended WB Picture Book Intensives where she was also able to have a face-to-face critique of her manuscript with an agent she’s admired. Colleen is a woman of many talents! In addition to writing, she’s also been a bellydancer, preschool teacher, bookseller, tour guide, nanny, janitor, and several furry Disney characters.
Her debut book, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem received a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award from the Association of Library Services to Children.
Learn more at her website.
Meghan Browne
Meghan P. Browne, an author and friend of ours, is another native Austinite and WB Success story who’s on the faculty for the NF Confab this weekend. Meghan received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arizona where she was the four-time recipient of the Foundations Scholarship. She’s taken Picture Book Bio I and some PB intensives with The Writing Barn. She says that her experience Picture Book I class with Carmen Oliver and the energy of her classmates showed her that she wanted to pursue children’s literature as an outlet for her writing.
Her picture books include Indelible Ann: The Larger-Than-Life Story of Governor Ann Richards and Dorothy the Brave which highlight women who were fearless and broke boundaries.
Check out Meghan’s website!