Going Back to College! Plus: Chaely's Book Club, Little Free Library Updates, and More!
I never thought I’d be going back to college, but the last couple of years have been full of surprises and I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to teach a course called “Writing Youth Literature” at the University of Pittsburgh this fall!
My class only meets once a week, so I’m still writing full-time—with some super-fun projects in the works!—but it’s been really cool, coming up with a syllabus and thinking about special guest speakers and…. just trying to pull together the best version of the class I wish I’d been able to take when I was in college.
I’ve done kind of a lot of guest lecturing over the years… but the last time I had a class of my own, I was in graduate school. It was one of those mandatory first-year writing courses that they let graduate students teach and I was only a couple of years older than my students (I think some of them might be subscribed to this newsletter—if you're reading this, I hope you’re doing well and avoiding clichés!).
I didn't teach for very long, though.
I was one of only two or three kids in my graduating class who moved to New York and started working in publishing (basically in the mailroom) instead of going for another degree—and that always felt like one of those big fork-in-the-road moments, the kind where you feel like you’re choosing between two completely different possible lives.
But the funny thing is: ever since I started writing my own books, I keep finding myself back in the classroom!
I mostly visit Elementary and Middle Schools, but every now and then I’ll end up reading picture books to kindergartners or running a publishing intensive with MFA students. No matter who I’m teaching, I always look forward to getting out into the world and talking about books and writing… and I just think it’s kind of perfect that the big fork in the road that I spent so much time worrying about in my twenties was actually more of a spoon :)
I shouted out The Rumpus and their Letters in the Mail program a couple of emails ago—but my letter is going in the mail on September 1st!
If you haven’t heard about Letters for Kids, basically: for ten dollars a month, you or your classroom or library gets two letters/month from a bunch of your favorite authors and illustrators. I had a lot of fun writing letters to classrooms over the last couple of years, so I just think this program is super-cool (and a fun way to support The Rumpus!).
And if you subscribe now, you might be in time to get my letter!
Introducing: Chaely’s Book Club!
Chaely is determined to “read” every book we pick up—so until I can convince her that books (and Rumpus Letters) aren’t for eating, I’ve been using it as an excuse to shout-out my summer reading. I recommended Super Secret Super Spies and the Mystery of the All-Seeing Eye in my last email… and I just had a chance to read the slightly chewed sequel. You can check out my full review on Instagram but:
🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶/5!
I don’t really post pictures of our Little Free Library visitors—only when they’re in disguise… and they’re in costume way more often than you’d think! This is one of our little friends who stopped by Monday morning to pick out some books and say “hi” (as far as ways-to-start-the-week go, this was pretty great!).
I just found how to link to all of my Little Free Library updates on Twitter, so if you wanna scroll through and catch up with the cuteness:
I always try to shout-out the free teaching resources for Snow Struck and Storm Blown in these updates… but, I also have a bunch of fun book merch (all drawn by me except for the Skate Cat, which is a Rachel Ekstrom Courage Original™️)!
That big tower on my new faculty ID is the same tower that Chaely is looking at (up at the top of this email) and that’s actually where I’m going to be teaching!
It’s called the Cathedral of Learning but I’ve mostly heard it called Cathy, and one of the cool things about Cathy is that a lot of the classrooms are themed to different nationalities (so there’s a French room and an Indian room - you can check some of them out here). I just checked and I think my classroom is one of the regular ones… but how cool would it be to have a class in one of those?
I hope everyone’s staying cool and having fun!
Your friend,
P.S. If you’ve read this far and you liked Snow Struck… but haven’t left it a rating on Amazon or Goodreads yet, please consider giving it a little love. Most readers I talk with don’t leave reviews anymore, but they help a lot more than you’d think!