Hello, community! I’m back from my blogging break and unbelievably, it’s already February 2022! Some updates:

Deadline met! I turned in the full draft of book 2 in the Queer History Project series, THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE just last week. I’ve learned so much from working on it, and I’m really excited to take it the next steps with my editor Shaina Olmanson at Lerner, so it can be in readers’ hands in 2023. More updates as I have them…

Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable! So RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE was honored by the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee as a “notable” picture book of 2021! It’s an honor, and awesome that it will help the book — all about spreading light — spread more light!

I’m one of three panelists speaking about Equality and Inclusion to the SCBWI San Diego chapter on Feb 5, 2022. I’ll be joining Ernesto Cisneros and Pamela Fong, and the discussion will be moderated by Patricia Buckley. It’s on zoom, and you can sign up to attend here.

The SCBWI 2022 Winter Conference will be happening February 11-13, and I’ll be leading a fabulous team of bloggers to share highlights from the event: Jamie Temairik, Jolie Steckly, Don Tate, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi. For writers, illustrators, and translators of books for kids and teens, the conference will be held entirely online, and you can sign up to attend here. And yes, I’ll be hosting the LGBTQ social on Tuesday Feb 8 from 5-6pm Pacific, also on zoom.

Queer KidLit Creators meetings for the first half of 2022 are scheduled – February 6, March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5 – all at 10:00am-11:30am Pacific! These independent gatherings of people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA2+ community who write, translate, and/or illustrate works for kids, tweens, and teens are held online once a month. There’s also a listserve, a critique corner, writing sprint groups, and additional community-run aspects to belonging to the group. To join, just email me at leewind (at) roadrunner (dot) com with your request and that you both self-identify as a member of the community and you create kid lit. That’s it!

Lots of good things to be grateful for and to look forward to!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Stay safe,
Lee