Picture Book Revision

Class Description

In this lively eight-week class, you will come to class with three picture book manuscripts and will craft six bold revisions (two new revisions for each story—usually up to 700 words), fiction or nonfiction, with an eye on submitting to children's book agents and editors in today's competitive and ever-shifting market. Each week will include a short lecture on a particular aspect of picture book revision with a close look at published picture books; revision tactics and exercises; feedback on classmate manuscripts. Students should already be familiar with the picture book format—its restrictions and possibilities—and will leave the course with a deeper understanding of picture book markets. You’ll also come away with three manuscripts to further develop or finalize for submission. This class is especially recommended for students who have taken Picture Book Intensive, Six Weeks Six Picture Books, Picture Book Generator or similar courses.

Students are asked to select two or more picture book mentor texts for each of the three manuscripts to be revised in this course. You may select your mentor texts for any of the following reasons: relevant topic, content, theme, angle, approach, structure, language, writing style, characterization, voice or POV. Please aim to source these picture book mentor texts before the course begins, and please select books published within the last ten years.

Picture books by these and many other authors will be shared: Bao Phi, Miranda Paul, Andrea Wang, Kyle Lukoff, Minh Lê, Laurie Wallmark, Margarita Engle, Katie Yamasaki, Kao Kalia Yang, Carole Boston Weatherford, Jen Bryant, Traci Sorrell, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Kevin Noble Maillard, and Nikki Grimes.

Class Format

This is an Online: On-Demand class that will take place on our asynchronous online learning platform, Wet.Ink. Weekly lessons and assignments open each Wednesday. Students will receive an invitation to Wet Ink before 5pm on the first day of class!

*NOTE that while our handy dandy "Schedule" tab states a 6-7pm class time, there are actually no live meetings for this class! Weekly lessons and assignments open each Wednesday. Students will receive an invitation to Wet Ink, our online class platform, before 5pm on the first day of class.

Scholarship Information

Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.

For more more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.