Michael Stearns

Michael Stearns is the founder of Upstart Crow Literary. A former editorial director for HarperCollins, he has edited hundreds of best-selling, award-winning novels and picture books for children, including A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly; Gone and Hunger by Michael Grant; Whales on Stilts! By M.T. Anderson; the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane; the Chet Gecko mysteries by Bruce Hale; and a whole slew of books by Bruce Coville, Jane Yolen, Ursula K. LeGuin, and others. He also runs a book packager called the Inkhouse, where he co-created the #1 bestselling series Fallen and the international bestselling Bliss bakery series, as well as a dozen other titles. His short stories have won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and other prizes, and under the pen name Carter Roy, he is the author of the award-winning middle-grade fantasy adventure trilogy the Blood Guard.

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The Written and Unwritten Rules of Middle Grade

May 22, 2022 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

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Writing for kids comes with a lot of unwritten rules, beyond just to take out the swearing and the sex. This panel will go over some of the things authors were surprised to learn was different in writing for middle grade than writing for an adult or YA audience.