But what if you could bring a keynote speaker, or workshop leader to your conference, gathering, or school who could share stories and tools for how to keep being creative, believe in your vision, be resilient, and use the power of story to heal amidst those challenges?

Drawing from my story and the stories of the unlikely heroes I profile in my children’s books, I’ll share tools for how to turn pain into action and make a difference as a teacher, a writer, and a young person.

If you’re an educator, you’ll receive resources for your classroom and learn ways to use stories to develop social and emotional learning competencies like self-awareness.

If you’re a writer, you’ll learn how to say yes to yourself when the world says no as you go through the writing and book publishing process.

Discussions about diversity and inclusion can bring up a lot of fears for educators: Will I say the wrong thing? Will I reach students who do and don’t look like me? Don’t let your fears stop you from initiating meaningful conversations with your students. Arm yourself with a secret weapon: books. I will lead you through a process designed to help you become comfortable with uncomfortable topics and gain a deeper understanding of white privilege and how it can inhibit your connection with your students. You’ll also be introduced to a diverse sampler of children’s literature that will inspire and engage your classes.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the obstacles you face each day as an educator? Your struggles in the classroom, when shared and processed, can be transformed into a healing experience for yourself and others. I’ll share how I learned to turn my pain into action during my 12-year journey from 9/11 survivor to award-winning children’s book author. You’ll leave with energy to embrace your classroom’s daily challenges and the ability to turn no into yes.

When you hear the name Gandhi, you probably think of peace and harmony, but his grandson, Arun Gandhi, experienced a great deal of anger and fear growing up because of racism. Instead of being ashamed of his anger, his grandfather taught him how to work with it. We’ll dive into how to teach social and emotional competencies such as identifying emotions, listening to and transforming anger, bonding with elders, self-reflection, and making changes for the greater good using Grandfather Gandhi and Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story. You’ll also receive a list of diverse children’s books that address various aspects of the social emotional learning wheel. Your students will gain SEL skills and learn how to transform their challenges into action.

Are you looking for new ways to teach social and emotional learning competencies that will reach all students? Biographies of unlikely heroes, from picture books to chapter books, will engage all of your students and help them understand how to turn their pain into action. I’ll share how biography authors uncover a narrative thread in their subject’s life story that appeals to young readers and connects to the author’s own challenges. You’ll learn how to personalize how you teach biography and generate more engagement in your students—our next generation of unlikely heroes.

Each time you muster the courage to send your work out into the world you face the dreaded no. I’ll show you how to turn rejection, near misses, and writer/illustrator frustrations into the gifts they really are. You’ll learn how to connect to the heart of your story, decide which critiques are valuable, and handle the rejections that every writer faces on the road to publication. You’ll gain the courage it takes to tell yourself yes until the world says it with you.

Are you committed to your writing life, but overwhelmed by your to do list? Do you have an agent, but are still on the verge? Or are you midlist and haven’t sold a book in awhile? I’ve been there too! Don’t let the overwhelm stop you from writing and making a difference. I’ll share practical tools and processes I’ve developed from decades of mentoring writers and living a literary life. You’ll fall in love with your writing life again. Promise!

It’s not just novelists that need to show range. Picture book writers do too. Young people want to read stories with characters that embody all aspects of their emotional lives: happiness, sorrow, fear, contentment, confusion, confidence, and everywhere in between. We’ll do some character work, explore how to bring humor to sensitive topics, and talk about how to address serious themes without being didactic. We’ll also look at character arcs and themes in recent fiction and nonfiction books with emotionally complex characters. You’ll learn how to write from your our own childhood experience while also keeping in mind the market and the impact you want your book to have on young people’s lives.

But our work together is about more than how to write and publish a book.

Let your conference, group,
or school know that their
yes is next.

Invite me to give a keynote, or talk to your educators, writers, or students. Send a request to my speaking agent, Carmen Oliver.