Been a minute since it pubbed so it might be too old for a comp, but worth a read as a mentor text!

Shout out from a fellow Chicagoland writer! I was born in Irving Park.

Have you read THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern? Great vibes for cursed circus lit!

P.S. #CampRevPit

I'm also chipping away at my WIP, a MG violin-fueled ghost story that's currently having an identity crisis (maybe it's actually dual voice? Or the close 3rd person should shift to 1st? Or it might all be totally & completely terrible?) #CampKickoff

2/2

Hi #CampRevPit! I'm here to polish my query package for a funny contemporary MG about pom/cheer squads & measles. #CampKickoff

1/2

Ooh, now I'm excited about this too! I really loved The House at the Edge of Magic.

I did, in 7th and 8th grade in suburban Chicago in the 90s. My current 6th grader says this is still a thing but he missed the unit because he had a required semester of health ed instead of gym at square dancing time.

That's a heartbreaking story so naturally I loved it.

Congrats!

So many stars in that lineup! Cheers to all.

Same for me. I subbed a MG contemporary and there weren't a lot of those in the sessions. I flagged one that might be mine but also might not be, and I'm not even sure what to hope for honestly.

FWIW the editors I subbed to seemed to mostly pick their 10queries randomly.

You're not a writer because you win contests or publish stories.

You're a writer because you write.

Write on, everyone. 👏👏

Thank you, Susan!

Shout out of appreciation to all of the #RevPit editors, organizers, and readers. You are so appreciated, and we're all coming out of this with new knowledge and new friends thanks to your leadership and countless unpaid hours.

All good now, everything just sounds more dramatic when distilled into a poem. 😆

Visit seventeen - my son offers his own arm for the shot. By Tracie Renee, Palatine Illinois. Haiku published in Pulse: Voices from the heart of medicine.

Celebrating #HaikuSaturday with this #haiku, up now at Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine.

pulsevoices.org/haiku/visit-...

Onward always.

I'll be revising my #revpit MS with CPs and betas while pushing forward with drafting a new project.

Running errands, do you need me to pick up marshmallows?

Beautiful poem, Alex, and the backstory was really fun to read about too. Congrats!

I finished the audiobook of The Correspondent yesterday & it was completely excellent! By that, I mean I literally balled my eyes out for the last 90 min, which was cathartic but awkward b/c I was also collecting my dog from daycare & walking him home, across busy roads & a park full of people.

Welkin me up, please, @welkinpress.bsky.social!

Congrats!

For the record, I'm honestly not sure I could pull off a genre novel-in-verse...but now I kind of want to give it a try.

Yes! So hard to pull off world-building in a format that demands brevity. THE SONG OF ORPHAN'S GARDEN did a stellar job of it, and I'm glad to hear there's more in the wings of 2026!

Ooh, can't believe I missed some of these! The ghost story sounds especially interesting--I'm excited to see that verse novelists are starting to branch out into more genres.

Aw, thank you Stacey!

MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS-IN-VERSE •ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY by Renée Watson—realistic fiction, Newbery. • ALONE by Megan Freeman—adventure, survival. • BECOMING MUHAMMAD ALI by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander—biography. • BEFORE THE EVER AFTER by Jacqueline Woodson—sports. • THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander—sports. • EUREKA by Victoria Chang—historical fiction. • IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL by Andrea Beatriz Arango—realistic fiction. • KAREEM BETWEEN by Shifa Saltagi Safadi—sports. • LIFEBOAT 12 by Susan Hood—historical fiction. • LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech--animals. • MASCOT by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell. • MID-AIR by Alicia Williams—sports, realistic fiction. • THE MOON WITHIN by Aida Salazar—realistic fiction. • MOUNTAIN DOG by Margarita Engle—realistic fiction, animals. • MY BROTHER OLIVER by R.L. Toalson (publishes in May 2026)—realistic fiction. • ODDER by Katherine Applegate—animals. • RUPTURED by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz—realistic fiction. • A SEA OF LEMON TREES by María Dolores Águila—historical, Newbery/Pura Belpré. • STARFISH by Lisa Fipps—realistic fiction. • THE SONG OF ORPHAN'S GARDEN by Nicole M. Hewitt—fantasy. • THE SONG OF US by Kate Fussner—romance. • THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES by Kate Messner—realistic fiction. • A WORK IN PROGRESS by Jarrett Lerner—realistic fiction. • A YEAR WITHOUT HOME by V.T. Bidania—historical fiction.

I apparently have been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me this question, because here is a list (personal favorites, books popular with readers at my library) that I just happened to have.

'Tis the season for creating novels-in-verse displays in libraries!

Thank you!

I finally feel seen! This is me, too.

And sometimes I don't even bother sitting, because that seems luxurious 😆

#RevPit