KidLit Craft Podcast
At KidLit Craft we look at mentor texts to discover ways to improve our own writing. Our Deep Dive series looks at one novel over multiple weeks.
Listen on:
Episodes
Thursday Apr 11, 2024
Thursday Apr 11, 2024
We explore how Martine incorporates feminism into historical fiction in a way that respects history and characters, by finding friction points between the character’s desires and their experience of the world. Also, Erin emotes about corsets.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
The book Erin references set in 15th-Century China is Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women.
The story of Esther
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Thursday Apr 25, 2024
Thursday Apr 25, 2024
In Buffalo Flats, Rebecca belongs to a religious community that exists within the larger community in the Northwest Territories of Canada. In this episode we look at how Martine makes this community recognizable to those in it and accessible to those not, and we share our personal experiences reading about the community. The craft techniques we discuss apply not just to religious communities, but to any smaller group within a larger culture.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Friday May 24, 2024
Friday May 24, 2024
Throughout Buffalo Flats, Martine Leavitt uses rich language and evocative metaphors. We break down how and why she uses specific language and metaphors, and to what effect. We also talk about how to decide what language and metaphors to use in your own work.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Lolo’s Light by Liz Garton Scanlon
KidLit Craft post on language and metaphor in Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton
KidLit Craft post on metaphors in Partly Cloudy by Tanita S. Davis
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Thursday Jun 13, 2024
Thursday Jun 13, 2024
Find out what's next for the KidLit Craft podcast, and exciting upcoming offerings from KidLit Craft.
Links:
Sign up for the KidLit Craft Newsletter
For information on the Writing MG for PB Authors class, email Anne-Marie at editor@kidlitcraft.com. Or find out more here: INFO SHEET.
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Our next podcast book: THIEVES’ GAMBIT by Kayvion Lewis
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts, tote bags, and drinkware (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Tuesday Jun 18, 2024
Tuesday Jun 18, 2024
Episode 13: Martine Interview, Part 1
In this episode, we interview Martine Leavitt herself! She talks to us about her inspiration for Buffalo Flats, the painful process of writing it, and her secret to sticking with writing when it's hard. Martine had so much wisdom to share that we split the interview into two episodes. Watch for Part 2 next week.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt
Calvin by Martine Leavitt
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
A KidLit Craft article on Calvin
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts, tote bags, and drinkware (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.comSign up for our newsletter
Thursday Jun 27, 2024
Thursday Jun 27, 2024
In this second part of our interview with Martine Leavitt, the author of Buffalo Flats, she tells us about the mountains that inspire her, how to put emotion on the page, what the heck an objective correlative is, and much more, including what she’s working on now.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
Introducing Season 2! We're taking a deep dive into Kavyion Lewis's YA thriller THIEVES’ GAMBIT. Find out why we chose it and what we have in store for this season.
Get your copy of THIEVES’ GAMBIT from Bookshop.org and support the podcast
Find more content like this at kidlitcraft.com
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
We’re starting with theme! Kayvion Lewis introduces the theme of TRUST in the very first sentence of Thieves’ Gambit. In this episode, Erin and Anne-Marie explore the different strategies Lewis uses to explore the theme through characters, situations, and plot twists that challenge the main character Ross’s view of the world.
Get your copy of THIEVES’ GAMBIT from Bookshop.org and support the podcast
Find more content like this at kidlitcraft.com
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
2 days ago
2 days ago
The opening of a book establishes The World As It Is, and Kayvion Lewis’s Thieves’ Gambit is no exception. Lewis masterfully establishes Ross Quest’s world of international thievery and how she relates to it, including her desire to escape into something more normal.
Get your copy of THIEVES’ GAMBIT from Bookshop.org and support the podcast
Find more content like this at kidlitcraft.com
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
A Deep Dive
At KidLit Craft, we look at mentor texts to figure out the mechanics of how writers do what they do, so we can improve our writing. Each series of the KidLit Craft podcast will focus on a different novel or shorter work.
Season one focuses on the YA novel Buffalo Flats by Martine Leavitt. We encourage you to read along as you listen.
If you like what you hear, you can support KidLit Craft on Patreon.
We also have T-shirts and sweatshirts. Find them at Cotton Bureau.
Tell your writer friends about the podcast.
We can't wait to nerd out with you.
Your Hosts!
Erin Nuttall (left) holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is an active member of SCBWI and ALAN. She lives outside of Chicago with her family where she writes stories for middle grade and young adult readers that offer a humorous take on friendship, identity, feminism, and romance. She is a regular contributor to KidLit Craft.
Anne-Marie Strohman (right) writes everything from picture books to young adult novels, and writes flash fiction and short stories, too. She is an active member of SCBWI and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches courses on writing for kids, lectures at regional conferences, and co-founded and edits KidLit Craft. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she finds all her best ideas on long hikes.