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Angela Dominguez

Random howls into the worldSelf-care
December 7, 2020

8+ suggestions for bookish self-care

So much is going on in the world, in our careers, and in our personal lives that it's easy to feel fried. And while the term "self-care" can sound indulgent when so many people are struggling to survive right now, I've begun to see that it's an essential survival skill for your mental health. The pandemic. The election. The demands for social justice. The surreal divisions in our country. The sudden pivot to all things virtual. It's not hard to see why, as a nation, we've turned to our vices against such a toxic backdrop for whatever personal crises we've also faced. In my own life - which often seems so shiny with book news on social media – there have been challenges. Both my Tía Isa and my mother-in law died unspeakably lonely deaths this year because of pandemic restrictions. Our middle daughter, a nurse working in ICU, contracted (and thankfully survived) Co-Vid two weeks ago. Are you wearing a mask to help protect people like Sandra? So, yeah, this has been a year when I've had to remind myself that it is OK to make time to take care of myself and those closest to me. Here are the top five things that have helped me. Getting good sleep:  For rest I turn to reading and ritual. I may read books written for children or I may venture into the world of books for grown-ups. Regardless, I make a ritual of warming some milk with vanilla and cinnamon (recipe…
Meg Medina
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AppearancesAwards and newsThe Writing Life
June 17, 2019

Wimps and Winners: Getting Ready for This Week’s Award’s Ceremony

This is the one week I've been thinking about for a while. First, I had a terrific weekend in Massachusetts. The first stop was with illustrator Angela Dominguez at Adventures in Storytelling, an event with the Girls Scouts Eastern Massachusetts Division. We joined forces with staff from Candlewick Press to give an inside look at how a book goes from an idea to the book you buy at your favorite indie. I also celebrated Father’s Day morning with readers at An Unlikely Story, the epic indie bookstore owned by Julie and Jeff Kinney, creator of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid empire. What a store!  Jeff was on his way to write in a cemetery for the day (as fathers do on special holidays?) but he stopped by to wish me luck before my event. His bookstore is easily the most beautiful indie I have seen so far in my travels. Every detail is lush and playful. See for yourself,  and put this on your to-be-visited list. Looking forward, though, the big news now is that we’ve arrived at the American Library Association’s Annual Meeting, where I’ll officially receive the Newbery medal. AGH! I'm in a sea of insane details but I have promised my team at Candlewick that I will remember to fully enjoy this weekend. To that end, I’m looking forward to connecting in all sorts of way. I'll have some private time with the whole 2019 Newbery Committee and with the key people in my publishing life…
Meg Medina
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AppearancesLatino Lifepicture booksThe Writing Life
February 26, 2017

March Madness – Bookish-style

I've been writing like a crazy woman against an upcoming deadline for a new middle grade novel. Right now, I'm at the point when I'm turning to algebra for some sort of comfort –which is a stretch, considering that math was always my worst subject. Still, in my head, I keep looping a word problem that goes like this: "Meg has 140 pages written. If she writes 2 pages a day for 3 days per week and then tosses one page a week, when will she reach an arbitrary  (but kind of respectable) number like 250 pages? And, more important, will they be good?" Anyway, I've been working fairly close to home since December, which has felt like a blessing. It's quiet. I have the comfort of my coffee pot, my dog, stretchy pants and fuzzy slippers. I can slip into someone else's wonderful book when I'm lost. (Thank you Kelly Barnhill for The Girl Who Drank the Moon.) My spring calendar is almost all within the mid Atlantic, too. But there are a few presentations to mention. As I look ahead to March, I have a day trip to Orlando for a Girl Bullying and Empowerment Conference and  a few school visits. (Schedule here). In the spirit of staying close to home, though, I especially wanted to highlight two events that are happening in my area, in case you want to join in. The first is a shared book talk at the University of Richmond with my good friend, Lila…
Meg Medina
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AppearancesThe Writing Life
April 4, 2016

What I Was Up To: Advocacy, San Antonio, and Frito Pie

The beautiful graphic created by my sweet friend R.J. Palacio If you follow kid lit, you probably know by now that a group of almost 300 authors took a stand on behalf of readers in North Carolina. This direct letter of support kids in NC was spearheaded by R.J. Palacio, and both Phil Bildner and Alex London did some seriously heavy lifting in terms of drafting the letter and gathering names. Thanks to SLJ for picking up the story; to the authors who we contacted on such short notice for their support; and to everyone who retweeted and showed support by sharing the message on social media. As all this was unfolding at lightning speed, I was also on my way to San Antonio - land of the River Walk and Frito Pie. It was a wonderful weekend of meeting old writing friends and new. I also got to read Mango Abuela and Me together with my illustrator, Angela Dominguez. Such a sweet moment. Authors sometimes don't meet their illustrators, so this was a rare blessing. Anyway, here are a few other highlights. At the opening cocktail party with Xavier Garza, Emma Virján, Sonia Manzano, Pam Muñoz Ryan and John Parra My first-ever ingested Frito pie. I hate to admit how good it was. Strolling the river walk that ran alongside Hotel Havana, where I stayed With Aurora Anaya Cerda at Ocho. Don't forget that La Casa Azul is still an online bookstore. My swanky frig in my 1950s inspired room. Check out…
Meg Medina
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Latino Lifepicture books
March 30, 2016

Coming your way San Antonio!

I'm packing my bags and getting in the mood for my trip to San Antonio this weekend where I'll meet up with 90 authors for the city's fabulous one-day, free-and-open-to-the-public book orgy: the San Antonio Book Festival  on Saturday, April 2, 2016. There's a bunch of kid lit authors scheduled– including some of my very favorite Latino picture book authors and assorted book people. I haven't crossed paths with a few of these guys in a long while. (I'm looking at you, John Parra and Aurora Anaya Cerda.) So, we're all a looking forward to our Latino kid lit family reunion. If you're in San Antonio this weekend, please come by the children's tent and say hola, que tal. Angela and I will be talking about how we worked together on Mango, Abuela and Me - and we'll read your little one the story ourselves. (In the meantime, here are some fun facts I found for you about the "most romantic city." I say that it pays to know what you're getting into...)          
Meg Medina
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Awards and newsThe Writing Life
January 11, 2016

Huge Win for Latino Authors at ALA: Mango, Abuela and Me Among medalists

It's been a huge and unexpected day for me, to say the least. But it has been a HUGE day for Latino authors and illustrators all the way around.  A ceiling-shattering day.  A day that represents such an astounding shift in respect and perception that it brings tears to my eyes as I am typing this. For the first time, we have Latino winners and honor books in so many of the major awards - the Feldman, the Seilbert, the Printz, the Caldecott, the Odyssey, non fiction awards and the very highest one, the Newbery. I am so very proud of my friend, Matt de la Peña, for his gorgeous book, Last Stop on Market Street. (The full list of ALA winners is here.)  If you were watching the ALA awards this morning, you know that Mango, Abuela, and Me was given the 2016 Pura Belpré honor book award for literature, as well as receiving an honor for the illustrations. Congratulations, Angela! (Full list of Pura Belpré winners here.) This award celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.  Since its inception, the Pura Belpré award has sought to shine a light on the Latino experience in children's literature. In so many ways, this has become my life's work. To have this medal on my book - this year in particular - is such an affirmation. A huge congratulations to Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez winners of the Pura Belpré medal for literature and illustration, respectively. I feel so humbled to have my work included alongside yours. Congratulations to all…
Meg Medina
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picture books
March 23, 2015

My new book trailer: Mango, Abuela, and Me

Do you need a book trailer? Plenty of authors will say no, but trailers are fun to make, even if you don't have any visual art skills. The one below was made on i-movie, plain and simple. Personally, I like the exercise of distilling an entire book idea down to a minute or less.  It's a visual "elevator pitch" and another way to get readers engaged in what's coming. Anyway, here's the trailer for my next picture book, Mango, Abuela, and Me, due from Candlewick Press on August 25, 2015. Illustrated by the lovely Angela Dominguez.
Meg Medina
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AppearancesThe Writing Life
October 29, 2014

Notes from the road: writing with depth, finding the joy & honoring your roots

I'm finally home after a long stretch in Northern Virginia. This weekend was the SCBWI Midatlantic annual writers conference, where I taught an intensive for the first time on how to write characters with depth, and how to develop a compelling voice in writing. Yikes. I had forgotten how hard it is to teach writing - and how much you learn from doing so. What I came to was this: Layers, depth and voice in writing really come from how deeply you want to go inside yourself and how honestly you can lay bare what you find.  I hope my SCBWI colleagues who attended were able to find something useful during our session. I'm wishing them lots of time to remember, to record, and to write. Then it was on to the Arlington Central Library. You could fit all of my hometown, Richmond, inside the hip pocket of Arlington. What a busy and vibrant place - especially its library. (Favorite feature: a vegetable garden planted in the beds that border the entrance.) Lisa Cosgrove-Davies, Youth Services Librarian, worked with the Arlington Teen Advisory Board to coordinate two school visits at Jefferson Middle School and Washington Lee High School, followed by an evening talk at the library. Now, was I feeling confident? No, I was not. It's always a crap shoot on whether people come to an evening library event, and Dallas was playing Washington to boot. But I kept channeling the words of Pat Cummings, who reminded me at the conference that the real joy in…
Meg Medina
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Awards and news
January 31, 2014

Yaqui, Pura Belpré and Me

Here is what it looks like when a dream comes true.  This blurry "selfie" was taken on a Richmond-bound Amtrak train, two minutes after getting the news that I had won the 2014 Pura Belpré Award. I was on my way home from the ALA Midwinter Conference on Sunday night when my cellphone rang and Ruth Tobar, chair of the selection committee, gave me the good news. I was  promptly sworn to secrecy until the next day. Obviously, Gigi guessed what all my Spanish and crying was about; thank goodness she's a steel trap. Thank you so much, everyone, for the tsunami of good wishes. (And thank you, Ms. Espinal, President of REFORMA (the ALA's affiliate group that focuses on library services for Latino youth and families) for saying "ass" with such courage and gusto from the podium!) It's an honor beyond belief to receive this award alongside some of the most talented people working in children's publishing today. (Full list of ALA Youth Media winners here.) Un abrazo fuerte for: Yuyi Morales, Margarita Engle, Matt De la Peña, Duncan Tonatiuh, Angela Dominguez, and Rafael Lopez. Pura Belpré winner for illustration Other pieces of good news continue to come in for YAQUI,  but for now I'm off to a Banned Books and Brews event at Longwood University this weekend to help raise funds for the Virginia Children's Book Festival which will bring some pretty big names to Virginia in the fall. A drink doesn't sound like such a bad idea right about now. ¡Salud! (Check out the awards. FYI,…
Meg Medina
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Awards and newsThe Writing Life
May 27, 2013

Angela Dominguez: A sneak peek at a new partnership

Know what this is? "Easter in San Francisco" by children's book author and illustrator Angela Dominguez. Easter in San Francisco (c) Angela Dominguez. Used with permission. This one is "Death of a Pet." Death of a Pet (c) Angela Dominguez. Used with permission. Why am I dancing in my living room about this? I got word that she has signed on to be the illustrator for my next picture book project with Candlewick Press. SUNSET COLORÁ is due out in 2015. Can't wait to see the book that emerges!  Meanwhile, I'll enjoy Angela's new picture book Let's Go Hugo. To learn more about Angela click here. Follow her on twitter @andominguez So excited!
Meg Medina
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