whatwason…

Category Archives: Tailor-Made Meaning

What Was on My . . .

Posted on December 30, 2013 by sandranickel • 19 Comments

The 30th of the month is always and forever my turn up. So, if you are curious about my December, read on for What Was on My . . . Agenda: Vals—a tiny village in the alps, on the other end of Switzerland. Reached only after 5 1/2 hours on the train, passing through one valley … Continue reading →

what was on…

A blog about the writers and illustrators of children's and young adult literature. Here, we get to the heart of their work and lives by asking What Was on Their . . . minds, desks, play lists, refrigerators, and more.

Sandra Nickel

Sandra Nickel writes books and poetry for young readers. In 2020 and 2021, she has three books coming out: Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack (Lee & Low), The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe (Abrams), and Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson (Abrams). Sandra’s poetry can be found in SCOOP magazine. Sandra holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has presented workshops on writing for children and young adults throughout Europe and the United States. Sandra has twice won the Katherine Paterson Prize for picture books.

Please visit Sandra’s website at sandranickel.com

Sandra is represented by Victoria Wells Arms of the Wells Arms Literary Agency.

80th Anniversary of Nachos

2020 is the 80th anniversary of the invention of nachos! Why not celebrate with Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack? It will be in bookstores everywhere on May 26th!

Poetry . . .

‘The Sun Has a Secret,’ my poem about the sun falling for the moon, is in SCOOP’s 1st anniversary issue. If you haven’t yet picked up an issue of SCOOP, do. It’s a brilliant children’s magazine that counts among its contributors Neil Gaiman, Sir Tom Stoppard, Herbie Brennan, and Jacqueline Wilson.

Antagonists . . .

I started thinking about antagonists when I was working on my MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. It wasn’t too long before I came to the conclusion that antagonists—yes, antagonists plural—were at the core of the very best stories. In fact, as I examined my favorite stories more closely, I realized that there are 13 Antagonist Archetypes, each capable of producing different reactions in the protagonist and reader. This realization turned into a presentation I gave in Amsterdam, morphed into a three-hour workshop I gave in Switzerland, and then was condensed into a breakout session for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles. For those of you who missed it, you can find it here: Enter the Antagonist–no scratch that–Enter the Antagonists, Plural.

THE PARIS REVIEW . . .

The Paris Review celebrated James Fenimore Cooper’s birthday by picking up and republishing portions of my April 30, 2014 blog–The Voracious Child Readers of Russia. If you would like to read the Paris Review’s Natty Bumppo, Soviet Folk Hero (September 15, 2014), click below.

WRITING AND ACTING

Melanie Fishbane invited me to join her series on Embodying Character, where she interviews the actors of Anne & Gilbert, a musical adapted from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, all toward the end of investigating the overlaps between writing and acting.

Before taking up writing, I studied acting for three years in New York City. If you were a fan of New York’s acting scene, you might have caught me in some very dark, very serious off-off-Broadway showcases and as a nurse on The City or serving up coffee as ‘Sandy’ on As the World Turns. So, as you can imagine, I’m endlessly fascinated by the similarities between writing and acting and was thrilled to participate in Mel’s series.

You can discover the Embodying Character Series by clicking below:

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