The Native Children’s and YA Writing Intensive offers an opportunity for reflection, conversation, celebration, and manuscript and career development to Native/First Nations writers.
Program Overview

Location: The Writing Barn, Austin, Texas. If necessary, due to local COVID-19 restrictions, the Writing Intensive may move to a virtual format.
Date(s):Thursday, June 8, 2023, through Sunday, June 11, 2023
Registration Cost: $100. Proceeds from the program will support future Native Writing Intensives.
Registration scholarships are available. Most participants will receive scholarship support.
Lodging expenses during the intensive will be approximately $400. Lodging scholarships are also available.
The Native Children’s and YA Writing Intensive will offer an opportunity for reflection, conversation, celebration, and manuscript and career development.
We’ll be sharing insights, information, resources, and contacts related to children’s and YA writing, Native books for young readers, and the surrounding publishing world.
We’re committed to community building, nurturing new voices, supporting working literary artists, and serving kids and teens while centering the needs of Native youth.
Up to 14 participants will be invited to participate in the program, which will include discussions of manuscripts in progress.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning on Feb. 6, 2023.
Scholarship priority will be given to early acceptances. As part of your application, please be sure to indicate on the application form whether financial assistance would be critical to your participation.
If you have any questions about the application, please contact info@diversebooks.org.
Eligibility
WHO SHOULD APPLY FOR THE NATIVE CHILDREN’S AND YA WRITING INTENSIVE?
- Native/First Nations writers seeking a weekend devoted to deep study, craft and conversation, manuscript feedback, and career mentorship.
- Apprentice/beginner, agented, and/or published children’s and YA writers who are Native/First Nations/Tribal citizens/members or recent descendants who are connected to their community. (Priority will be given to those still in their pre-publishing apprenticeship and new voices with three books or fewer.)
- Native/FN writers, including those who are Elders, 2SLGBT+, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians, Black Indians, Indigenous Freedmen, people with disabilities, urban/rez/’burbs/rural/small-
town, veterans, etc. - Native/First Nations writer-illustrators are welcome to apply, though the program emphasis will be on writing rather than illustration.
It is not required that your children’s or YA writing be centered on Native characters or topics. Please feel free to bring your mainstream nonfiction about, say, the history of roller skates.
COVID-19 Protocols
The 2023 WNDB Native Children’s-YA Writing Intensive will take place in person at The Writing Barn in Austin, Texas, provided Austin Public Health recommends participation in indoor gatherings.
COVID-19 precautions will be observed during the Writing Intensive, including mask-wearing and social distancing. Vaccination status/negative COVID-19 test may be requested in relation to overnight lodging accommodations, etc.
Writing Intensive Includes:
- Presentations and Q&A sessions with agent, author and editor faculty members.
- A 10-page critique (on one long project or no more than two picture books) in standard manuscript format or a career consultation with faculty. (Typically, you’ll chat one-on-one with one of the authors and either the agent or editor. For assignment purposes, you’ll indicate on the application whether you’re already agented, etc.)
- The opportunity to read and participate in the discussion about the creative submissions of your peers.
Application
The applications must be submitted via this link by March 6, 2023.
Thank you to the Writing Barn for their ongoing support and flexibility and to Rainbow Weekend Intensive for permission to model our language on theirs.
Faculty
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee citizen) is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning author for young readers. Her 2023 release is Harvest House, an Indigenous YA ghost mystery. Her most recent previous books are ANCESTOR APPROVED: INTERTRIBAL STORIES FOR KIDS, which was an ALA Notable Children’s Book; SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, which received six starred reviews; and HEARTS UNBROKEN, which won an American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award. She also is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint, and a member of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA faculty. Photo by Christopher T. Assaf
Varian was born in Florence, South Carolina, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering. He later received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is honored to now be a member of the faculty. Varian lives outside of Austin, TX with his family.
Rosemary Brosnan is Vice President and Publisher at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she has worked for twenty-two years, and recently launched two imprints: Heartdrum and Quill Tree Books. Throughout her career, she has been committed to publishing diverse voices. She has published picture books, nonfiction, chapter books, graphic novels, and fiction for all ages. On the Heartdrum list, Rosemary has published books by Indigenous authors Christine Day, Jen Ferguson, Dawn Quigley, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Brian Young. Other authors and illustrators Brosnan has worked with include Elizabeth Acevedo, Kwame Alexander, Jodi Lynn Anderson, the Blackout team (Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon), Ernesto Cisneros, Jerry Craft, Saadia Faruqi, Neil Gaiman, Sheba Karim, Gail Carson Levine, the late Walter Dean Myers, Patrick Ness, Neal Shusterman, Melissa Sweet, and Rita Williams-Garcia. Photo by Kate Morgan Jackson
Sara Crowe is a Senior Agent at Pippin Properties, where she represents books for children and adults. She began her career at The Wylie Agency, and worked in foreign rights for 8 years. Her clients include Newbery and Printz winners, New York Times Bestselling authors, and debut authors. She loves finding new talent to champion, and nurturing and developing careers. Pippin Properties, Inc. has spent the past 20 plus years helping build careers for authors and artists whose work stands the test of time, many of whom have become household names in their own right.