Jackson, Mississippi; June 6-8, 2008

"MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE"
Featuring Carolyn Yoder,
Editor of Calkins Creek Books &
Senior Editor of History for Highlights for Children

Sarah C. Campbell, Retreat '08 Coordinator

The best way to make your historical fiction or nonfiction history manuscript stand out in a slush pile is to do primary research, according to Carolyn Yoder, who edits an imprint of books on American history at Boyds Mills Press and acquires history and world cultures articles for HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN.

This means pushing back from the computer and visiting local historical societies, archives, museums, and other places where primary sources - such as letters, diaries, patent records, oral histories, and photographs - are found.

Twenty-three SCBWI members spent two days with Yoder during a recent retreat in Mississippi called "Making History Come Alive: A Primary Source Primer." The conference was co-sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and funded in part by the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Yoder encouraged participants to search out the stories in their own back yards. It makes doing the research easier and, "it'll just about guarantee that I'll read it, because it will be something I haven't seen before," she said.

And, good news for members of Southern Breeze, Yoder said she is hoping to get more book manuscripts set in the South.

In order to get serious consideration, all book or magazine manuscripts must come in with a bibliography - preferably an annotated bibliography. This means historical fiction, too, because Yoder wants to know that the writer has done the research that will allow accurate portrayals of other time periods.

Yoder is looking for history/world culture, anecdotal manuscripts, up to 800 words. Subjects of interest are: presidential, patriotic pieces, and American holidays. She'd like intimate "snapshot" articles of life in another country.

www.highlights.com/ www.calkinscreekbooks.com/

Sarah C. Campbell is the writer/photographer of the picture book,
WOLFSNAIL: A BACKYARD PREDATOR,
just released from Boyds Mills Press.
http://www.sarahccampbell.com