As the Social Media Coordinator for the SCBWI Oklahoma Region, I host a monthly Twitter Chat for our members (and anyone else who’d like to participate) where we talk for an hour with someone from the children’s publishing world, be it agent, editor, author, illustrator, etc. The conversations are always lively and enlightening.
We meet from 7-8pm CST using the hashtag #okscbwichat. If you’ve ever been curious about a Twitter Chat, stop on by! We love meeting new people.
We are having a Special Twitter chat session this Tuesday, March 3rd with another one of our Spring Conference faculty to get to know them before the conference this April. I hope you’ll join us!
CLICK HERE to view our full #okscbwichat 2020 schedule.
Amy Brewer is the second guest who will also be a faculty member at this year’s SCBWI Oklahoma spring conference April 3rd-4th in Oklahoma City. For details on the conference and how to register CLICK HERE.
Here’s an introduction to Amy:
March 3rd – Amy Brewer – Literary Agent
Amy Brewer is a Senior Literary Agent with the Metamorphosis Literary Agency based in Oklahoma City. Amy wears many hats everyday, from literary agent to co-author of the Texting Prince Charming series to social media manager to yoga teacher.
She graduated from Culver-Stockton College with a theater degree because drama, romance, and angst are lifelong passions. Her intuitive human understanding can help other writers bridge the communication gap and jump into the publishing world.
For the last few years, she has been learning all she can about social media optimization and platform building in the publishing industry. Amy’s experience in the mental health field and yoga training help her guide and assist clients with stress and anxiety in this highly competitive industry. She pulls all of this together with a multi-tasking, hyper-organized brain, so that at the end of every day, she feels accomplished and grateful.
She is seeking captivating stories of human experience and books that touch her heart.
Learn more about what Amy is specifically looking for by visiting her manuscript wish list here: https://mswishlist.com/agent/42amer
Her Twitter handle is @42amer
This is a great opportunity to get to know the conference speakers before the conference. I hope you’ll join us for our conversation with Amy!
***Missed our chat with Amy? View the recap HERE.
You can read the recaps for all of our chats, from this year and from those in years past, HERE.
Jonathan Koelsch has been illustrating professionally since graduating with honors from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, and attended Kansas City Art Institute’s illustration program for 3 years.
Jennifer March Soloway is a literary agent who represents authors and illustrators of picture book, middle grade, and young adult stories. She enjoys all genres and categories, such as laugh-out-loud picture books and middle-grade adventures, but her sweet spot is young adult.
Mekisha Telfer is an associate editor at Roaring Brook Press (Macmillian), where she is building a list of picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels. She got her start in publishing in 2014 as an editorial assistant with Simon and Schuster BFYR/Salaam reads, and has also worked briefly at Glasstown Entertainment.
Literary Agent Alex Slater has been with Trident Media Group since 2010. For many years he oversaw the foreign rights sales of all of Trident’s young adult and children’s projects, which includes the work of R.J. Palacio and Louis Sachar.
Children’s author Jess Rinker received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has won many awards for her work including short story, creative nonfiction, and most recently an honorable mention for the Katherine Paterson Prize from Hunger Mountain for her middle grade novel THE YOUNG TRAVELERS CLUB.
Lisa Papademetriou is the author of A TALE OF HIGHLY UNUSUAL MAGIC (a South Asia Book Award Highly Commended Title), the New York Times-bestselling novel MIDDLE SCHOOL: MY BROTHER IS A BIG, FAT LIAR and HOMEROOM DIARIES (both with James Patterson), the CONFECTIONATELY YOURS series (over 750,000 books in print), and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers.
Children’s author Joe McGee writes funny, quirky, offbeat stories for kids (and adults who still hold a piece of the magic). He has two picture books published, PEANUT BUTTER & BRAINS (Abrams) his debut PB which came out in 2015, and the sequel, ALIENS & JELLY (2017). A third book in the series, PEANUT BUTTER & SANTA CLAUS is scheduled for release in 2019.
Sharon Edge Martin has been a writer since she wrote her first poems at the age of eight. She has worked as a waitress, an artist’s model, a musician, a bookkeeper, a jewelry designer, a newspaper editor, and a teacher, but no matter what other job she is doing, Martin is always a writer.
Associate editor Rachel Murray started at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in 2014. She has experience with picture books, chapter books, middle grade fiction, and young adult novels in a variety of genres. She has had the pleasure of working on projects such as Stegothesaurus by Bridget Heos, illustrated by T. L. McBeth; First & Then and subsequent books by Emma Mills; and the NYT-bestselling Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson.
Gwendolyn Hooks is the author of the NAACP IMAGE AWARD winning picture book biography, Tiny Stitches-The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas and Block Party, a Junior Library Guild Selection. Her newest books are The Garden and If You Were A Kid During the Civil Rights Movement. Gwen’s next book, Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons: An Enslaved Woman Fights for Freedom,is scheduled to release on October 1stof this year.
Chad W. Beckerman
Andrea Hall – Associate Editor with 
Hannah Mann – Junior Agent with 
Daniel Nayeri – Publisher at 
Allison Remcheck – Associate Agent with 
Jerry Bennett – SCBWI Oklahoma Illustrator Coordinator and Professional Illustrator
Emily Heddleson – Senior Manager, Library and Educational Marketing with Scholastic
February 6th – Allison Remcheck – SPECIAL CHAT DATE
February 27th – Daniel Nayeri
March 6th – Hannah Mann – SPECIAL CHAT DATE
April 29th 1:00PM – Zoe Waring – SPECIAL CHAT DAY AND TIME!!!
May 22nd – Heather Cashman
June 26th –Pablo Cartaya
September 25th – Ashley Nixon
October 23rd – Sue Lowell Gallion
Ally Carter
Jill Santopolo – Editorial Director with 
Linda Camacho – Literary Agent with 
Kristen Nelson – President and Founding Literary Agent at 
Katrina Damkoehler – Senior Designer with 
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS LITTLE by 
HELLO HIPPO, GOODBYE BIRD by 
Matt Ringler – Senior Editor with 
Benjamin Myers is a professor of literature at Oklahoma Baptist University and is the current Oklahoma Poet Laureate. He is the author of two books of poetry LAPSE AMERICANA and ELEGY FOR TRAINS, which won the Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry.
Adriana Domínguez is a literary agent with 
Joe Hight is not only the president of Best of Books, an independent bookstore in Edmond, Oklahoma, he’s behind the online persona, BOB, and the delightful tweets of the store’s Twitter account 
Karl Jones – Associate Editor with 
Sara Sargent – Executive Editor at 
Carter Hasegawa – Associate Editor at 
Jodell Sadler – Literary Agent with 
Victoria Selvaggio – Associate Agent with 
Jason Henry – Senior Designer with 
Books”. For those who were new to the process of how a few, well-crafted words of a picture book manuscript turn into a finished, physical book, this was very enlightening. It is truly a labor of love.
valerie r lawson 