SCBWI Podcasts

*/ ?>

Latest Episodes:

Loving Your Inner Dork with Mother-Daughter Duo Rachel Renée Russell and Nikki Russell Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

Rachel Renée Russell is the author of the #1 New York Times Best Selling book series, Dork Diaries which has spent 331 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list for Children’s Series. She’s an attorney who prefers writing Tween books to legal briefs mainly because books are a lot more fun, and pajama pants and bunny slippers aren’t allowed in federal court.

Rachel first introduced us to Nikki Maxwell in 2009 and has written 17 books in the Dork Diaries series which have sold more than 55 million copies worldwide. For a peek at some of the books that have been translated into 52 languages in 57 countries, check out the Dorks Around the World section of this website.

Nikki Russell is an artist. She is also the illustrator of the Dork Diaries series, which have sold over 50 million copies and translated over 32 languages.

Buy their latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781665988384

Follow them here: Tiktok and IG @dorkdiaries

Support the show

Sitting Down with SCBWI's Global Translator Coordinator, Avery Fischer Udagawa Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

In this week's episode we are joined by Avery Fischer Udagawa

Avery Fischer Udagawa grew up in Kansas and studied English and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She holds an MA in Advanced Japanese Studies from The University of Sheffield. She has studied at Nanzan University, Nagoya, on a Fulbright Fellowship, and at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama. She writes, translates, and works in international education near Bangkok, where she lives with her bicultural family. She volunteers as Global Translator Coordinator in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Buy Avery's most recently translated book here:

The Village Beyond the Mist

https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781632063922

Support the show

Inside the World of Narrative Nonfiction with Ann Bausum Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

In this week's episode we are joined by SCBWI Golden Kite Winner Ann Bausum.

ANN BAUSUM has written nine National Geographic books for young readers during the past 12 years. Her publication list features six works of social justice history, two presidential history reference books, and a photobiography. She has won numerous awards, including a Sibert Honor Award from the American Library Association and three other national awards for literature.

Purchase her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781250816573

Check out her website here: www.annbausum.com

Follow her on socials here: @abausauthor

Support the show

Trusting Your Gut with Suzanne Kaufman Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by author/illustrator Suzanne Kaufman.

SUZANNE KAUFMAN is an author, illustrator, and animator. Over the years she's done everything from animating special effects for Universal Television and the Discovery Channel to animating award-winning video games for children. She's the illustrator of a number of children's books, including Samanthasaurus Rex by B. B. Mandell, Naughty Claudine's Christmas by Patrick Jennings, 100 Bugs! by Kate Narita, and her own book, Confiscated! Learn more about Suzanne online at suzannekaufman.com

Purchase her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9780316311663

Check our her website here: suzannekaufman.com

Follow her on IG here: @suzannekaufman

Support the show

Maintaining Momentum as a Creative with Nova Ren Suma May 29, 2025

Show notes

In this week's episode of the SCBWI Podcast, we are joined by Nova Ren Suma!

Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and co-edited the story & craft anthology Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City, and now lives in Philadelphia. Her new novel Wake the Wild Creatures is out now from Little, Brown.

Check out her website: novaren.com

Buy her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781616206727

Follow her on IG here: www.instagram.com/novaren

Support the show

Writing Poetry while Hiking with Kate Messner May 15, 2025

Show notes

In this week's episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Kate Messner.

New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too. Kate's titles include both fiction and nonfiction; she writes award-winning picture books, easy readers, chapter book series, and novels for young readers. Her books are frequently nominated for state book award lists and have been honored with the E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Golden Kite and Crystal Kite Awards, Riverby Award for Natural History Writing, and Nerdy Book Club Awards. Kate's science themed books have also been selected as finalists for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize and named to the NSTA/CBC list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. Kate is a frequent speaker at conferences for writers and educators and visits schools all over the world to talk with students about books, writing, and the power of curiosity.

Purchase her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-trouble-with-heroes-kate-messner/21573976?ean=9781547616398&next=t

Follow her on IG here: www.instagram.com/katemessner

Support the show

An Artist's Process with Barbara McClintock May 08, 2025

Show notes

In this weeks episode we are joined by Barbara McClintock!

Barbara McClintock is an American illustrator and author of over 40 books for children. Her books have received numerous awards and citations, including five New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Awards, four ALA Notable Book Citations, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Award, a China Times Best Illustrated Books Award, and a British Fantasy Award. One of her books is a best-selling title in Japan.

Her artwork has been exhibited and is in the collections of libraries, museums and galleries around the world.

She has lectured about her work nationally and internationally, and is currently teaching classes on creating children’s books at Wesleyan University. She has served on the board of directors of the Eric Carle Museum, and chaired the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators.

Barbara is self-educated as an illustrator, learning by studying and copying artwork from books checked out of public libraries.

Originally from New Jersey and North Dakota, she now resides in northeastern CT with her partner, the illustrator David Johnson, and their three overly-helpful cats.

Buy her latest book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781534418509

Follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/barbaramcclintockart/

Support the show

A Conversation with Kyle Lukoff and Levi Hastings, the duo behind the picture book: Are You A Friend of Dorothy? May 01, 2025

Show notes

This week we are joined by author Kyle Lukoff and illustrator Levi Hastings!

From Newbery Honor and Stonewall Book Award–winning author Kyle Lukoff and celebrated picture book illustrator Levi Hastings comes an “approachable, engaging” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) picture book about how people found community in a time when they had to keep their true selves secret.
“Are you a friend of Dorothy?”
In a time when the LGBTQ+ community was forced to hide in the shadows, a woman named Dorothy helped her people find each other in the dark and celebrate themselves in the light.
But who was Dorothy? Was she from the neighborhood, someone’s wife, mother, or sister? Was she that clever writer, who threw parties where there were no rules about who you could and couldn’t dance with? Or was she a girl from Kansas, who dreamed of leaving her black-and-white, small-town life and finding a vibrant, colorful world that loved her?
Dorothy might have been all these things—because Dorothy, as known by the post-WWII queer community, wasn’t real. Still, she helped a community find connection and care amidst adversity.

Buy the book here: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781665931663

Follow Kyle Here: www.instagram.com/kylelukoffwrites

Follow Levi Here: https://www.instagram.com/levihastingsart/

Support the show

Slowing Down with Donna Barba Higuera Apr 11, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Donna Barba Higuera!

Donna grew up in Central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, rather than dealing with the regular dust devils, she preferred spending recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones as inspiration.

Donna's Middle Grade and Picture Books are about kids who find themselves in odd or scary situations. From language to cultural differences in being biracial life can become…complicated. So like Donna, characters tackle more than just the bizarre things that happen to them in their lives.

Donna likes to write about all things funny, but also sad, and creepy, and magical. If you like those things, she hopes you will read her books!

Donna lives in Washington State with her family, two dogs and a frog.

Buy here latest novel:https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781646144129

And check out the rest of her books here: https://bookshop.org/contributors/donna-barba-higuera

Visit Donna's website here: https://www.dbhiguera.com/

Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/donnabarbahiguera/

Support the show

Doing the Right Thing with Maria van Lieshout Apr 03, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of the SCBWI Podcast we are joined by Maria van Lieshout!

Maria is a Dutch-American illustrator and graphic novelist.
She was born and raised near Amsterdam, and studied Visual Communications at George Washington University in DC. Maria has illustrated and written 15 picture books for kids. Her graphic novel Song of a Blackbird is inspired by historic events, including those that affected her own family, during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Maria lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their son.

Buy here latest novel: https://bookshop.org/a/19191/9781250869814

And check out the rest of her books here: https://bookshop.org/contributors/maria-van-lieshout

Visit Maria's website here: https://www.vanlieshoutstudio.com/

Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/vanlieshoutstudio/

Support the show

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected