Conference faculty profile: Michelle McCann

Michelle McCann CAN show you how to tell, and tell you how to show!

Editor at Beyond Words, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Michelle McCann is a graduate of Brown University and has an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College. She has been working as a children’s book editor and art director for more than twenty years, shepherding hundreds of titles into print—from board books to young adult novels. She taught Children’s Book Publishing at Portland State University for thirteen years and currently acquires middle-grade and young adult nonfiction for Beyond Words Publishing/Simon & Schuster. She also edits and art directs children’s books for Graphic Arts Books and Trackers Earth Books. Michelle has written numerous children’s books of her own, including Girls Who Rocked the World, Finding Fairies, and Luba: the Angel of Bergen-Belsen. Her honors include the Oregon Book Award, the Jewish Book Council’s Best Illustrated Book, the IRA’s Notable Picture Book, and Simon Wiesenthal’s Once Upon A World Award.


 Blog:

VivaScriva, 2014 (women's writers collective blog, and MM wrote a whole slew of posts that you will find extremely useful)


Michelle's conference schedule:

–Saturday, 8:30–9:15am
Agent/Editor/Art Director panel 

–Saturday, 10:20–11:20am
Breakout session 1-D, "Extreme Makeover: Proposal Edition" (Nonfiction track)

–Saturday, 1:05–2:05pm
Breakout session 2-C, "Down and Dirty: An Author and Editor Talk About Teens, Sex, and the Edge in YA" (with author Amber Keyser)

–Sunday, 8:50am–12:10pm
Nonfiction Intensive, "Too Cool For School: Creating Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction"