Susan Kuklin

I get lots of emails wondering how the men in No Choirboy are doing. Two days ago the New York Times wrote an article about Mark Melvin who is featured in chapter 2. Mark was not allowed access to a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon, a senior correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. And so he is suing prison officials and the state commissioner of corrections.

Mark, who was arrested for murder at age fourteen, is 33 years old.

If you're attending ALA in New Orleans this weekend, all ALSC Members are invited to attend:

Strange Bedfellows: Unusual Pairings of Artists and Writers,
Saturday June 25, 10:30 – Noon
Morial Convention Center, Room 343
Moderated by Caroline Ward

What happens when an editor thinks outside of the box when choosing an artist and writer? This program will explore the marriage between the image and the word. A distinguished panel of editors, and their authors and illustrators will discuss how bringing together an unexpected combination of artists and writers can result in unique and imaginative books. (more…)

Many of you have expressed an interest in writing directly to Nanon Williams of No Choirboy. Nanon will be happy to correspond with you. Since he moves around a bit, he now has a PO Box. Here's his address:

Nanon M. Williams
P.O. Box 8897
Houston, Texas 77249

WOW! This is the first time I've ever written Nanon's name without his prison ID#.

My recent trip to Morocco is described today on INK.com 's blog. The URL is:

http//inkrethink.blogspot.com

Please visit it and let me know what you think.

Thanks to the fabulous students, faculty and staff for two wonderful weeks at the Rabat American School. I learned so much from you and hope you learned a little from me. Miss you. Love you.

Take a look at today's blog, Interesting Nonfiction for Kids [INK]:http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/ It's about Why I/We/You Continue to Write for Kids.

Dannielle asks if the inmates in the book are still incarcerated. Yes, they are. Here's an update:

Roy is still in prison hoping for a reduced sentence. I will write to him to see how he is coping with his life.

Marc's parole was denied.

Nanon is currently in a county jail in Texas (more…)

US Supreme Court Strikes down life without parole for juveniles in non-homicide cases. At last.

Congratulations to Bryan Stevenson and everyone at EJI for a job well done.

This thoughtful blog about the panel I moderated can be read by going to http://www.mantlethought.org/content/war-words. Hats off to Bernardo, Atxaga, Filip Florian, Assaf Gavron, and Rahimi

My latest post on INK.com is up. What does the writer do when there are no new ideas? Maybe you can answer this question.