Session: Inside the Author's Studios: Printz Award WInners, Terry Trueman and Gene Yang. Sitting in armchairs, v. Bravoesque. They are soliciting questions from the audience via cards. Joel Shoemaker, Iowa City teacher-librarian and former chair of BBYA, is the moderator for the Printz session -- he knew Printz Terry Trueman published first novel at 52, won Printz, said best part meeting people, including those at today's author lunch Printz honor doubles sales of Stuck in Neutral from 7K in months to 14K two weeks later, Trueman encouraged by teacher Ms. Keyes Stuck in Netural came from poem about Trueman's son Sheehan (now 30) "profoundly developmentally disabled," at ch. beginnings Trueman says Printz makes titles bulletproof for challenges Trueman says that Stuck in Neutral will forever make readers think differently about individuals in wheelchairs Yang started creating comics after college ('96) when that genre was in trouble, so he had no expectation of success Yang went part-time teaching h.s. (comp. sci and math or art, then ed tech specialist, now database admin) after winning Printz Yang has always "struggled with his inner geek." Picked out Marvel 2-in-One in 5th grade, mom bought Superman, started drawing Yang almost gave up comics in h.s. 'cuz friend advised it was no way to meet girls, but took summer school comic making class Yang was losing money on paying for his early comics to be professionally printed, so he turned to minicomics (xerox) Yang is talking about his comic adaptation of the prayer which became the book The Rosary & his Catholic faith, pub. by Pauline Another set of mysteries added to the rosary while he was writing that book, increasing his workload (not compensation) by 33% Yang draws distinction between cartoonist versus artist. He is going to draw the Monkey King, one of his favorite characters!  |