Please welcome my friend and fellow Picture Book Peep, author Roxanne Chester! If you’re a writer looking for a bit of encouragement, light, and connection, look no further!
Some Highlights:
The joy of community and connection within the writing world.
How stories unite all of us with shared feelings.
Finding a way to forgive yourself when you don’t have the headspace or heartspace to push through and come back to writing afterward.
Being kind to yourself as a writer.
The benefits of creative expression.
More about This is My Bag: An unhoused person carries a bag through the streets, to a shelter, to a house, to the subway, and the park. With each changing location, the protagonist and their bag also changes, reflecting the various faces and reasons for homelessness and asking the reader to contemplate themes of community, self-reliance, and the meaning of “home.”
“What helps me is being kinder to myself.”
–Roxanne Chester
Links Mentioned🔗:
This is My Bag: A Story of the Unhoused illustrated by Abraham Matias on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop
The 12×12 Picture Book Challenge
NY Writers Coalition Black Writers Program
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
Picture Book Peeps on Instagram and Substack (new podcasts monthly!)
Book Recommendations📚:
This is My Bag by Roxanne Chester, illustrated by Abraham Matias
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, her short writings
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speeches
Thank you so much to Roxanne for coming on the show and to you for listening! Check out the next episode now with kidlit author-illustrator Jenny Alvarado! And make sure you’re all caught up on author interviews like this episode with author-illustrator Wendy C. Goldstein about better than fiction characters and building community and this one with author Christine J. Ko about diverse bookshelves and writing passion.
