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Volume 42 Number 1 Winter 2020 ISSN0708-594X • Introducing Robin Stevenson • Jan Thornhill – The Claire Mackay Lecture • Dharmali Patel – Illustrator's Sketchbook + Congratulations, Noteworthy, President's Message, Welcome, News Roundup, & Business Briefs Logo variation by Vladyana Krykorka Introducing... Robin Stevenson By Heather Camlot “I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let the world know,” gay rights pioneer and first openly gay politician in the United States Harvey Milk said in 1977. “That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine.” It’s hard to imagine that four decades later, prejudice is still alive and well—and living in North America. On October 1, Longfellow Elementary School in Wheaton, Illinois, cancelled author Robin Stevenson’s October 2 visit after a parent complained that the book she would be talking about—Kid Activists: True Tales of Childhood from Champions of Change, (Quirk Books, 2019)—had a chapter about Milk even though Robin’s presentation would only be A couple of weeks later, several hundred LGBTQ+ mentioning Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, community members and allies gathered in front of James Baldwin, Delores Huerta and Canadian the Palmerston branch of the Toronto Public Library environmental activist Autumn Peltier. to protest its space rental to anti-trans speaker Meghan Murphy. A similar response occurred in underestimate kids and don’t give them enough Vancouver last January. credit for being thoughtful and critical and capable.” It was during the TPL backlash that I first met While Robin divides her writing time between Robin. She was travelling to Toronto from Victoria, fiction and nonfiction, it’s the latter that has B.C., to speak at CANSCAIP’s Packaging Your propelled her into the spotlight recently. Her choice Imagination—her topic was Writing of topics reflects what she’s LGBTQ+ Books for All Ages—and a TPL passionate about, what she wishes visit had been set up for her. Robin she had had when she was growing was unsure what to do—she didn’t up or when raising her now-teenage want to disappoint the students son, and what she feels is relevant for invited to attend, but she, as a kids and teens. member of the LGBTQ+ community, Cases in point, her four 2019 titles: stood by the TPL petition and the picture book Pride Colors (Orca protest. Book Publishers), about After several emails back and unconditional love and acceptance; forth and consultations with library the young adult My Body My Choice: friends, Robin opted to do the visit. The Fight for Abortion Rights (Orca), an She tinkered with her prepared idea that came to her after Donald American presentation—although Trump’s presidential inauguration; she didn’t visit Longfellow, she did the picture book Ghost’s Journey: A speak at 12 schools during her Refugee Story (Rebel Mountain Press), California and Illinois book tour— through which she hopes to raise and boosted the LGBTQ+ quotient. awareness about LGBTQ+ around the She would use the TPL visit to world and its criminalization in educate her young audience, support seventy countries; and the middle- her community, and promote grade Kid Activists, about change- empathy and understanding. makers as children and what drove “How many boys did Harvey Milk them to stand up and speak up. like?” “When did Janet Mock change into a I sat in on Robin’s visit to the Don girl?” Mills branch. Over 100 Grade four and five students Tough subjects know no bounds, but Robin says it’s packed the room and paid close attention to what the approach rather than the subjects themselves Robin had to say. Squirming was at a minimum. that make them relevant to young readers. When it was their turn to speak, the kids raised their Research is key—and exciting. “I love reading and hands and asked questions ranging from the serious, immersing myself in a subject I’m curious about,” to the curious, to the poignant, to the humorous. she says. “It’s a great way to spend your days, “Having the opportunity to do visits and meet reading, watching documentaries, speaking to with kids and teens is a pretty incredible thing for a people and learning about something you really care writer,” Robin later said over lunch. “It reminds me about.” of who I’m writing for. I think we so often 2 CANSCAIP NEWS Winter 2020 By the time she’s wrapping up, she usually has had no plans to publish or to change careers, writing enough material for several books. She distills the was something she had always wanted to do. information to determine what she wants to include And she was good at it. Friends encouraged her to in the current project and then develops an outline. send out her manuscript about a girl with telekinetic For Robin, the joys of writing nonfiction are the powers. Impossible Things was published by Orca just connections she makes and how a few years later. By then, she was much she discovers along the way. obsessed with writing and didn’t The biggest downside is that the return to counselling. book is out of date as soon as it’s “How do you start fiction?” written because the subject is constantly evolving. Robin draws on her own life when it Still, she’s inspired by the activists comes to fiction, from memories of she’s met around the world and the her childhood and teen years to incredible work they do in dangerous experiences she’s had as an adult. situations. “It makes me feel more She’s also inspired by people who committed to speaking up about have made her think about particular human rights and privilege and issues, the ways she’s seen people in safety, and doing that whichever way the world struggle and cope with I can, big or small.” difficult circumstances, and the work she did as a counsellor. “What was your very first book?” Though she doesn’t write with a While her non-fiction has taken on a theme in mind, resilience (Blood on life of its own, Robin spent her first the Beach, Escape Velocity), dealing decade as a writer crafting fiction. with secrets (Hummingbird Heart, The She’s always been a huge reader; World Without Us), and anxiety childhood favourites include Emily of (Record Breaker, The Summer We Saved New Moon and Harriet the Spy—both the Bees) are ideas that tend to come about girls who want to be writers— up repeatedly. and A Wrinkle in Time, about three She starts with a character, usually outsiders. Her mother used to bring enmeshed in a particular situation, home huge cardboard boxes of books then does some unstructured writing from library book sales. In fact, her parents still show about that character—discovering who they are, up at her door with stacks of books. finding their voice, mining the idea to see what Before her son was born, Robin had been a comes forward. She loves immersing herself in this counsellor, mostly working with survivors of sexual new world, writing that first chapter, following the assault. While on maternity leave, she found she had character around and seeing what happens. “Fiction a lot more “mental space” even though her days were is playful,” she says. “It’s like having imaginary busy. “I would walk around town with the stroller friends.” and I kept a notebook underneath. I would sit down Part of the fun is seeing the characters take shape and write whenever he went to sleep.” Though she along with the novel. “What I think I know about the characters when I begin a book is quite different CANSCAIP NEWS Winter 2020 3 from what I know about them when I finish a book. Celebration and the Struggle, will be released March Often all I know when I start is a very vague and 2020. hard-to-pin-down sense of who they are.” When she’s writing, particularly YA novels, Robin Unlike with her nonfiction, Robin doesn’t create says she is definitely thinking about LGBTQ+ teens an outline for her novels and acknowledges that early who want and need to see themselves reflected in the drafts are disorganized and messy and that those books they’re reading, something she didn’t have as a first pages will likely not survive. She admits that the teen. She’s thinking about kids who feel like further along in a story she gets, the harder she outsiders in any way, who feel misunderstood in any becomes on herself. “With just about way. “I want to write books that will every novel, I think it’s utter garbage “What I think I know about make them feel more seen and more by the middle and I don’t know how the characters when I begin understood.” a book is quite different from I’m going to make it work,” she says, “What happens if both people die in a adding that every time she reaches what I know about them duel?” the halfway mark she promises when I finish a book. Often herself she’ll make an outline for the all I know when I start is a Once the manuscript is done, then next book. “But when it goes well, it’s very vague and hard-to-pin- comes the revision process—making exhilarating.” down sense of who they are.” sure questions are answered, logic prevails, loose ends are tied up and “Isn't Alexander Hamilton in the stumping points are… What does happen if both movie Hamilton?” people die in a duel? Intention in stories, whether fiction or nonfiction, is Once upon a time, Robin dreaded revision, but a weighty topic.

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