Book Giveaway: POET PILGRIM REBEL: The Story of Anne Bradstreet, America’s First Published Poet by Katie Munday Williams

Katie Munday Williams has a new  picture book titled, POET PILGRIM REBEL: The Story of Anne Bradstreet, America’s First Published Poet, illustrated by Tania Rex and published by Beaming Books. They have agreed to send a book with one lucky winner living in the US.

All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Thank you for helping Katie and Tania.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The inspiring story of a Puritan woman whose passion for writing poetry broke barriers.

Late at night, with her children tucked into bed and her husband away on business, Anne Dudley Bradstreet composed poems by candlelight. She let her thoughts from the day tumble out, memorizing each poem line by line before daring to shape the words onto scraps of scarce parchment. Puritan women in the 1600s weren’t allowed to be writers. But when the world learned about Anne’s poetry, even she was astonished by what happened next.

This charmingly illustrated picture book tells the inspiring story of how a Puritan woman overcame the obstacles facing women of her era to become one of the most famous poets in history. A gifted writer of deep faith, Anne Bradstreet blazed a trail for the rights of women to study, write, and achieve.

BOOK JOURNEY:

This book felt like it took FOREVER to write, but in reality it was about one year from the time I started to the time it was acquired by Beaming Books. During that time though, it went through many, many revisions and versions. I remember lying awake at night, turning over different settings in my mind. How would I introduce Anne, at what point in her life would I start the story? This part of nonfiction can be so hard to figure out! But one thing I knew was that the story of Anne Bradstreet was one that needed to be told.

I was drawn to Anne’s journey as a writer for several reasons. My mother informed us a few years back that we were directly descended from her, so I took a special interest in her beautiful poetry. As I read more and more nonfiction picture book biographies, the story of her life started to form in my head–the trouble was, how to capture the heroic journey of a woman who lived over 400 years ago!

The book started out quite long, well over 1000 words. I crafted draft after draft, each time attempting to hone in on the early experiences that had shaped Anne’s desire to write and her success in doing so. I played with titles, changed tenses, and fiddled with scenarios and I relied heavily on mentor texts such as Jen Bryant’s Louis Braille biography, Six Dots. For the most part, I didn’t worry too much about word count. I wanted to get it all on paper and figured I could do some pruning once I knew what I was working with. This technique seemed to work well for me, though it still weighed in at around 900 words when I submitted it.

Once I felt that I had it as polished as I could get it, I hired the wonderful Susan Kralovansky from Yellow Bird Editors. With her insight, as well as some heavy lifting from my two AMAZING critique groups, I felt that the manuscript was truly ready to query.

I decided to participate in #pbpitch on Twitter and was thrilled when two different publishers ‘liked’ it. While one passed, Beaming Books loved it and decided to publish it. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the final product and I can’t wait for readers to learn more about this amazing pioneer.

KATIE’S BIO:

Katie Munday Williams is a Public Health Nurse, Lactation Consultant, and Author. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA with her husband and two children, where they enjoy digging for sand crabs and gawking at whales. Katie has always been an avid reader and has loved rediscovering picture books as a mom and writer.

Poet, Pilgrim, Rebel: The Story of Anne Bradstreet, America’s First Poet is her debut picture book, due out August 3 from Beaming Books. Visit her online at https://katiemundaywilliams.com or on Twitter: @KatieWills79

ILLUSTRATOR TANIA REX:

Tania was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania and finds it to be one of the most inspiring cities. Having graduated with a graphic design from Vilnius Academy of Art, she began her career designing book covers and kids magazines.

Today she had already worked for an impressive list of Lithuanian clients creating children’s books, postcards, advertising campaigns, packaging and editorial imagery.

Tania loves the challenge of creating visuals for her clients, and the sense of freedom and independence she gets from being a freelance artist.

She’s happiest when she can take an idea and turn it into a picture. Experimenting with styles and drawing it is how she spends most of her spare time. She draws inspiration from the little miracles of everyday, aiming to point the spectators attention to the ever present magic of real life. Tania Rex is represented by Lucie Luddington

Katie, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. I love reading historical picture books and the illustrations are lovely. Tania did a great job. I don’t have a copy of the book, but I hope to read it. Good Luck with the book!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy