Uma Krishnaswami
@brokentusk1.bsky.social
Writing books for young readers since the last century
Guest Post: Cynthia Leitich Smith on the Formidable and Necessary Power of Aunties and Grandmas www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/formida...
Guest Post: Cynthia Leitich Smith on the Formidable and Necessary Power of Aunties and Grandmas — Uma Krishnaswami
Here Come the Aunties! by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee), illustrated in joyful, frolicking spreads by Aphelandra (Oneida), is a tribute to all kinds of aunties, whether by kin or by choic...
umakrishnaswami.com
Adi Rule is a VCFA graduate from the program where I taught for sixteen years and this is her new middle grade we’re talking about, Ghosts Chickens: Omelet From the Other Side, peopled with eccentrics of all ages and species. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Adi Rule on Ghost Chickens: Omelet from the Other Side — Uma Krishnaswami
Florence Fortescue is an aspiring journalist. She’s also ten years old, that marvellous age of awareness when a kid lands at last in the double digits and the world is opening up but there are those p...
umakrishnaswami.com
My conversation with Traci Sorell about her book with Will Chavez, honouring history and community. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Traci Sorell on Riding the Trail — Uma Krishnaswami
Riding the Trail: Cherokees Remember the Removal by Traci Sorell and Will Chavez is a tribute to history and the present, at once honoring ancestral tragedy and present-day community. When a Cher...
umakrishnaswami.com
Thank you, @yamilesmendez.bsky.social for chatting with me about my favorite story form, the picture book www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Yamile Saied Mendez on Writing Picture Books — Uma Krishnaswami
Yamile Saied Mendez is an American wri ter, a VCFA alum, and the author of The Beautiful Game , Furia and the po werful, moving ode to the power of music, Hear Ye Mortals . But I have...
umakrishnaswami.com
How often do we hear the word "Orwellian" tossed about these days? www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/ourselv...
Ourselves in Orwell: Why I Write — Uma Krishnaswami
1984 and Animal Farm may be the most obvious Orwell picks these days. Me, I’m reading Why I Write, a little Pe nguin compilation of four essays: The titu lar “Why I W rite” begin s: ...
umakrishnaswami.com
Caroline Starr Rose's picture book is a love song to reading, books and librarians: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Caroline Starr Rose on Books Up the Mountain — Uma Krishnaswami
A writing group is more than the sum of everyone in it. You share manuscripts at various stages of progress. Some fall by the wayside, others make it to completion. You celebrate successes and commise...
umakrishnaswami.com
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Dinesh Thiru on My Killer Family Reunion — Uma Krishnaswami
An attempted murder at a large, noisy, unwieldy Indian American family reunion in New Jersey forms the inciting incident in Dinesh Thiru ’s YA comedy -mystery, or maybe it’s a mystery-comedy— My ...
umakrishnaswami.com
A book for those of us who occasionally get derailed by reviews. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/a-walk-...
A Walk into the Dark Wilderness: On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche — Uma Krishnaswami
I thought I’d made peace with the writing demons of insecurity by acknowledging them and expecting to encounter them in the process of writing every single book. Then a recent review knocked me off my...
umakrishnaswami.com
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/the-whi...
History and the Uncertain Present in The White House Effect — Uma Krishnaswami
Towards the end of last year, a time that seems now like an eon ago, I wrote about the oddities of a 1996 children’s book from GM , no less, that aimed to push—really!—an American electric car. Wit...
umakrishnaswami.com
Trump, Ending Decades of Protection, Opens Wild Habitats to Drilling and Mining www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...
Trump Cuts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species (Gift Article)
The rule change ends a safeguard that had been in place for 50 years and could hasten the demise of imperiled animals.
nytimes.com
Open the Door and Enter: Three Times I’ve always been fascinated by doors. Here are three books that employ the door motif in interesting and inviting ways. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/three-b...
Open the Door and Enter: Three Times — Uma Krishnaswami
I’ve always been fascinated by doors. I’m even trying to use one as a portal in a novel that is, I’m sad to say, currently refusing to bend to my will. This door. with its brass crossbar latch and it...
umakrishnaswami.com
More on Electric Birds of Pothakudi from Karthika Naïr --additional thoughts from illustrator Joëlle Jolivet: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Karthika Naïr and Joëlle Jolivet on Electric Birds of Pothakudi — Uma Krishnaswami
Electric Birds of Pothakudi is a picture book based on the true story of a villag er in south India who took e xtraordinary action to prot ect a pair of nesting birds. It’s a strikingly illustr...
umakrishnaswami.com
Ghosts and empathy and more in Cry by Alisa Valdes: review and commentary on Writing With a Broken Tusk www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/empathy...
Empathy and Breaking the Rules in Cry by Alisa Valdés — Uma Krishnaswami
I was a part-time cashier in a rare-books store when I died… That’s the funny, idiosyncratic voice of the first-person narrator in Cry by Alisa Val dés . Altagra cia Martínez (known as Grac...
umakrishnaswami.com
Surprised, anyone? This is what happens when you want to make America great by taking it back to the days before vaccines. Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...
Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional
nytimes.com
What do we do when birds nest in human spaces? www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Karthika Naïr on Electric Birds of Pothakudi — Uma Krishnaswami
Electric Birds of Pothakudi is a picture book based on the true story of a villag er in south India who took extraordinary action to protect a pair of nesting birds. The book is an ode to its rural...
umakrishnaswami.com
In Mima Tipper’s funny, thought-provoking new YA novel, Channeling Marilyn, the ghostly presence of Marilyn Monroe takes up residence in Lexa's body, upending her life. Wish you’d thought of that, right? www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Mima Tipper on Channeling Marilyn — Uma Krishnaswami
Seventeen-year-old Lexa Donovan’s timid, plus-size life goes sideways when the spirit of Marilyn Monroe takes up residence in her body in this laugh-out-loud funny paranormal YA tale perfect for fans ...
umakrishnaswami.com
See how your lawmakers voted on America's public lands. The first tool tracking every vote on national parks, forests, and wilderness. morethanjustparks.com/congressiona...
Congressional Public Lands Score
The first tool ever built to track how every member of Congress votes on your national parks, forests, wilderness, and wildlife refuges. Find your lawmakers. See their record. Hold them accountable.
morethanjustparks.com
Bex Hogan, YA fantasy writer, on Owl King, her sequel to Nettle (Faery Realms series). www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Bex Hogan on Owl King — Uma Krishnaswami
Nettle by UK writer Bex Hogan (“a Cornish girl at heart”) is the first book in the Faery Realms series. As Nettle stumbles into a parallel world, placing her grandmother in grave danger, she’s take...
umakrishnaswami.com
Martha Brockenbrough (she who wrote that amazingly perceptive book about 45-47, way before rising numbers of the public cottoned onto his deceits and conceits) has now written a picture book that dazzles while it informs. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Martha Brockenbrough on A Gift of Dust — Uma Krishnaswami
Martha Brockenbrough (she who wrote that amazingly perceptive book about 45-47 , way before rising numbers of the public cottoned onto his deceits and conceits) has now written a picture book that ...
umakrishnaswami.com
The Writer I Am by Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams: Kaua writes about the making of her YA novel, An Expanse of Blue www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Kaua Adams on An Expanse of Blue — Uma Krishnaswami
Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams and I crossed paths two years ago over a project I’d been nurturing for a while. She is now my collaborator on this work, which is absolutely all I can say at the moment. We...
umakrishnaswami.com
Meanwhile, how much time and taxpayer money was spent on this public flexing of ego? Trump Administration Live Updates: President Withdraws $10 Billion Suit Against I.R.S. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05...
Trump Administration Live Updates: President Withdraws $10 Billion Suit Against I.R.S.
nytimes.com
Space for Meaning: Guest post from Stephani Eaton www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Stephani Eaton on Taking Her Writing Life Off the Page — Uma Krishnaswami
One of the great joys of having taught writing for a couple of decades is hearing from former students about their journeys beyond our time together. Stephani Eaton was one of my students who wrote ...
umakrishnaswami.com
That Feeling: Shruthi Rao writes about her picture book, When Science Stood Still. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Shruthi Rao on When Science Stood Still — Uma Krishnaswami
Sometimes you come across a book someone else wrote that taps precisely into a story you wanted to tell yourself, that you perhaps tried to tell and never quite managed to. That’s part of the writing ...
umakrishnaswami.com
Loree Griffin Burns on Extreme Birdwatching www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Loree Griffin Burns on Extreme Birdwatching — Uma Krishnaswami
In Extreme Birdwatching: Measuring Change on a Galapagos Island , Loree Griffin Burns zooms in on a single island from the fam ed archipelago. Welcome to Daphne, not the kind of island you might g...
umakrishnaswami.com
Nora Shalaway Carpenter on Story as Community and Activism www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Guest Post: Nora Shalaway Carpenter on Curating and Editing the Climate Fiction Anthology, Onward — Uma Krishnaswami
Nora Shalaway Carpenter (my former student, I’m proud to say) has edited a fine array of climate-centered short stories in a new anthology, Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope ....
umakrishnaswami.com
Here are a 20-year-old novel by American writer Audrey Couloumbis and two more recent ones by Canadians Sarah Ellis and Amanda Lewis. Wondering why there aren't more American books for young readers on the Vietnam war resisters who left for Canada. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/hell-no...
Hell, No, Don’t Go: Canadian Stories (and American Avoidance) of Vietnam War Resistance — Uma Krishnaswami
As we near the 51st anniversary of the fall of Saigon, marking the end of the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War) we find ourselves looking into the abyss of the war with Iran. This one...
umakrishnaswami.com
Build Canada’s east-west power grid with renewable energy. Help us support the cause > dsfdn.org/BuildCanadas...
Build Canada’s East-West Grid with Renewables
Add your voice to demand bold federal action for a clean, affordable and reliable electricity future. Sign the petition today.
dsfdn.org
Jane Harrington's book turns a feminist lens on esoteric scholarship about 17th century French storytellers--and delivers layers of story and history in the tone of a conversation among friends. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/not-a-f...
With the “worst fire season” projections getting beaten year on year, here’s another bonkers move by 47 and his toadies. Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/c...
Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk
nytimes.com