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Introducing Zara González Hoang!

2/25/2019

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(C) Zara González Hoang

Welcome, Zara! Thanks for stopping and for sharing your kidlit journey with us!

Thanks for inviting me!

Do tell! How did you find your way into illustrating for children?

I don’t know that I can pinpoint the exact path, or even when I “started.” My answer may be considered a clichéd illustrator’s, but I can’t remember a time when I didn’t draw. The form those drawings have taken has always been one that leaned with a whimsical bent. 

That being said, my path to illustrating children’s books has been a long and winding one. Although in retrospect it should have been the obvious place for me to start (considering my love of stories and drawing), for some reason it was not. I think I was so convinced I couldn’t do it that I had to try everything else I possibly could before I finally let myself admit that this was where I wanted to be. 

So I led a few creative lives before I stumbled into the wonderful world of children’s publishing. And now I never want to leave!

What do you love about illustrating for children?

I love that anything is possible. Children don’t care that elephants are supposed to be grey or that people don’t usually wear snails on their heads. Their minds are open and they are interested in EVERYTHING. The smallest thing in an illustration might be the thing they obsess over. I keep that in mind when I am drawing and try to stuff each page full of interesting bits and pieces for them to find.

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(C) Zara González Hoang

Describe your process, please. 

I’m pretty loose when it comes to how I work. I don’t have a set process in place, but rather let the project dictate how I will approach it. It’s a little hokey, but I tend to do a lot things based on what feels right.

For the book I’m working on right now, I read the manuscript a number of times just to get the voice and flow of it stuck in my head. Then I gave myself lots of opportunities to let my mind wander—walking the dog, gardening, cooking. I do my best thinking when my body is otherwise occupied, and that’s where I find a lot of my ideas and meet my characters.
 
I do a lot of doodling, too, trying to coax the things I see in my head out onto paper. In theory, these doodles are all in a special notebook I start at the beginning of the project. In reality, they are often on scraps of paper and drawn with whatever happens to be handy.

I’m also a total creative magpie. I keep scrap files for inspiration and tend to collect interesting patterns and color combinations that I might want to remember for some future project, so I’ll often pull these out when I am looking for inspiration or trying to spark new ideas.

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How would you say your family, cultural influences, your travels, and/or your life's experiences shape your work?

I think they are woven into everything that I do. From the subjects I choose to illustrate to the stories I choose to tell. Every one of them is somehow touched by my experiences, whether I realize it at that moment or not.
 
I don’t think we can extract ourselves from our work no matter how much we might try, but luckily those are the things that make us unique and give our work it’s unique character. 

What type of children's books do you want to continue to illustrate?

I want to illustrate books that feature diverse characters—especially characters that are part of more than one culture. This is particularly important to me as a Latina, a Jew, the wife of an immigrant and as a mother of a child growing up at the intersection of multiple cultures. 

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Zara González Hoang grew up in a little bungalow in the great white North. Surrounded by snow she spent her days dreaming, doodling and listening to the colorful stories of her dad’s life growing up in Puerto Rico while trying to figure out where she fit in as a mixed-race Latina Jew in a sea of Scandinavians. (She’s still figuring that out.)

These days, she lives outside of DC in a magical suburban forest with her Mad Man husband, her son, and curly coated corgi. She still spends her days dreaming and doodling, but now instead of listening to stories, she’s starting to tell some of her own.

Zara's first picture book,
Thread of Love--published by Beach Lane Books  an imprint of Simon & Schuster in 2018, and written by mother-son team Surishtha and  Kabir Sehgal--was chosen by Seattle Public Library as one of the best picture books of 2018! Find her and her delightful portfolio at zaralikestodraw.com and  follow her on Twitter and Instagram @zarprey. Zara is represented by Andrea Morrison at Writers House. 

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Welcoming Leah Henderson

2/22/2019

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(C) Ebony Glenn

Welcome, Leah! Thanks for stopping by!

Nice to be here, Dionna!

Do tell a little about the Kweli conference, and how you found your way onto the planning committee.


Kweli--The Color of Children’s Literature Conference--is a wonderful day-long kidlit writers and illustrators event (with optional Masterclasses on Friday). This year it will be held Saturday, April 6, 2019, at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In 2014, after reading author Walter Deans Myers op-ed piece "Where Are the People of Color in Children's Books?", Laura Pegram, editor-and-chief of the Kweli Journal and Kweli conference founder, decided to create an event that is exclusively for Indigenous people and persons of color who were writers and illustrators. As she puts it, “we honor Walter Dean Myers' legacy with a conference that celebrates and supports our voices, our stories, our truth.”

In 2016, I stumbled across a post for an upcoming Kweli conference that was happening that weekend. I didn’t do much thinking, I just sent an email to inquire if walk-ins where permitted and once I got a "yes" back, I booked a train ticket. There was no way I was going to miss it! I had never been to a children’s writing conference where Indigenous and persons of color were the majority. It was a wonderfully refreshing experience to see and hear from creatives who had many of the same concerns as I do. But it wasn’t just about the struggles. Kweli is also a celebration of our many successes. After that first year, I was hooked and about a year later, when Laura asked if I was interested in becoming involved, I was honored to be a part of it all.
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What do you love about working behind the Kweli scenes, creating a lineup that is both rich culturally and holds promise of a real educational experience for attendees?

I go to a number of conferences and retreats and it’s nice to create programming that I hope to see. Also, I love that Kweli is a good mix of new and established voices. 

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(C) Ebony Glenn

Share one or two of your most memorable experiences while either attending or planning for the conference.

Kweli is a very unique experience. I will never forget the welcome I received during my first conference. It’s hard to explain, but when you are used to being one of the only people of color in a room, it was nice to see and meet so many other POC creatives in one space. They were doing so many amazing things in their work and were just as curious and eager as I was to learn more about craft and the business-side of writing.

May people from any background, not just persons of color, attend the conference?

Kweli is a conference exclusively for Indigenous and POC creatives. It’s an opportunity for this community to come together to speak about issues and concerns that are unique to our experiences as well as general discussions on craft and the ins and outs of publishing. Kweli’s aim is not to exclude, so the organization does offer a literary festival during the summer that is open to anyone interested in attending.

What is the process for a published author or illustrator who would like to be considered for the Kweli faculty?

At the moment, the planning committee creates most of the sessions offered, reaching out to people we feel will work best for each panel or session. Since we want to highlight newer voices on the publishing side of the table as well, we often get recommendations from IPOC editorial assistants, designers, or marketing experts. Everyone, especially Laura, does a pretty good job of knowing which authors and illustrators are coming out with new work that can be highlighted each year.

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Leah Henderson is the author of the middle grade novel One Shadow on the Wall, an Africana Children’s Book Award notable, and a Bank Street Best Book of 2017. Her forthcoming picture books include Together We March, Day For Rememberin’, and Mamie on the Mound. She also has a new middle grade novel  The Magic in Changing Your Stars on the horizon.

Raised in Andover, Massachusetts, Leah has fond memories of getting up to all kinds of shenanigans that often made for great tall tales told late into the night. Growing up in a family of curious travelers, she has always known where there is adventure, there is story. Through seeing the world, Leah has witnessed the richness that can be found within everyone’s individual story. That is why writing the world she sees is so vitally important to her. These days, when she’s not off exploring, you can find her writing, laughing, or playing soccer at midnight with her dog, Boston, in Washington, D.C. Learn more about her and her books at leahhendersonbooks.com.

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    About Me

    I am a children's book author who loves learning about lesser known individuals shining in the margins of African American history. My debut novel for young readers, Mama's Chicken & Dumplings (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2024), received a starred review from Shelf Awareness and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. I am 
    represented by Kelly Dyksterhouse of The Tobias Literary Agency.


    Copying, reposting, or otherwise republishing anything on this blog without permission is strictly prohibited.

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