Revise Your Picture Book Manuscripts: A Faculty-led, Writer-Centered Critique Group
Dates: Wednesdays March 26 – May 21, 2025 Time: 7:30 – 8:50 PM EST Where: Online
Do you have picture book manuscripts that you’d like to revise with a small, committed group of writers dedicated to helping you produce your best work? Join award-winning author and MFA-level instructor Karen Krossing for this in-depth, hands-on, nine-week workshop limited to eight participants. You’ll use your own manuscripts to explore picture-book craft/revision, you’ll discuss craft elements you can apply to your own manuscripts, and you’ll participate in weekly online discussions that dive into picture book craft topics.
Our nine weeks together include:
An initial session on learning how to participate in a writer-centered critique group—one that centers on each writer’s needs and creates a safe, nurturing feedback experience. (This session is required for participation.)
Eight 80-minute workshop sessions facilitated by Karen Krossing where writers will offer and receive targeted, constructive feedback that inspires revisions and helps you meet your writing goals.
Two manuscript critiques per participant during the workshop sessions, including feedback from Karen.
Learning about picture book craft from Karen and one another’s creative efforts and insights.
Eight weekly online conversation prompts about picture book craft in a separate, online digital learning space exclusive to the group.
You will complete the workshop with:
Having built a community of fellow picture book writers.
The revision tools and craft knowledge to revise your own manuscripts as well as your peers’.
Meaningful ways to workshop and evaluate picture book stories.
Two critiques of your picture book manuscripts.
The tools needed to form your own writer-centered critique group or enhance your existing group.
This workshop is for you if:
You seek targeted, constructive, inspirational feedback on your picture book manuscripts.
You want to expand your understanding of picture book craft with a focus on revision.
You want to co-create a safe, nurturing feedback experience for all levels of writers.
You are seeking a writer-centered critique group or the tools and insight to enhance your existing critique group.
Have you ever stopped to think about the buried creeks and waterways tucked under our parks, homes, and streets? There’s a wetlands near my home where a creek burbles to the surface briefly before it’s contained underground again. It sparked My Creek Speaks, written by me and illustrated by Hawlii Pichette. This lyrical nonfiction picture book is a way to connect and reconcile with the waterways that sustain us. It’s also a cross-cultural creative collaboration that I’m grateful to be part of. I’m an author of settler heritage, and Hawlii is a Mushkego Cree (Treaty 9) urban mixed ancestry artist and illustrator. Together with Groundwood Books, we can’t wait to share our creation with you in Fall 2026.
I’m a fan of Hawlii’s first picture book, BENJAMIN’S THUNDERSTORM, wonderfully written by Melanie Florence. Please check it out!
Have you ever stopped to think about all the footsteps that have walked your street—yesterday, today, and tomorrow? That thinking sparked My Street Remembers, written by me and illustrated by Cathie Jamieson. This lyrical nonfiction picture book is a way to connect and reconcile with the land where we live. It’s also a cross-cultural creative collaboration that I’m grateful to be part of. I’m an author of settler heritage, and Cathie is an Anishinaabe artist of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Together with Groundwood Books, we’ve created something special that we’re excited to share with you in Fall 2025.
I adore Cathie’s illustrations, including her art installation “The Gathering in Place,” currently on display at the YDZ Experience Centre in Toronto:
I’m honoured that One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo, has been included in the TD Summer Reading Club 2024! This club is Canada’s biggest, bilingual summer reading program for kids of all ages, interests, and abilities. It’s offered at more than 2,000 public libraries as well as online. I love how it celebrates Canadian authors, illustrators and stories, and inspires kids to read!
On August 28 at 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm, you can find me at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto! I’ll be in Kids World at the Storybook Nook, reading from my picture books Sour Cakes (illustrated by Anna Kwan) and One Tiny Bubble (illustrated by Dawn Lo). I’ll have a few books for sale too. I hope to see you there!
