WORLD-BUILDING WITH HEART IN FANTASY & MAGICAL REALISM

Award-winning author and poet Jennifer Givhan invites children’s book writers on a journey into the heart of worldbuilding and myth-making. In this generative, craft-focused session, Givhan—whose upcoming middle-grade novel Pi Luna and the Turquoise Palace reclaims Mexica (Aztec) storytelling and centers Indigenous girlhood—will guide participants in creating immersive worlds and unforgettable characters rooted in cultural authenticity and emotional truth.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Techniques for building atmospheric yet accessible magical worlds
• Creating spunky, deeply human characters young readers will love
•  Drawing from personal, ancestral, and mythological sources to enrich fantastical narratives
• Weaving oral storytelling, history, and tradition into modern children’s literature

Whether you're writing fantasy, magical realism, or contemporary with a touch of the otherworldly, this workshop offers tools and inspiration to craft stories that honor the past while dreaming fiercely toward the future.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

JENNIFER GIVHAN is a Mexican-American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices.

She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. She is the author of eleven books of poetry and fiction, including Girl With Death Mask (chosen by Ross Gay as the winner of the Blue Light Book Prize/Indiana Review Press), and the novel Trinity Sight, which was a finalist for the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards and won The Southwest Book Award. Her latest novel River Woman, River Demon was chosen for Amazon’s Book Club and as a National Together We Read Library Pick and was featured on CBS Mornings. It also won an International Latino Book Award in the Rudolfo Anaya Latino-Focused Fiction category.

Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Nation, POETRY, TriQuarterly, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, Salon, Ploughshares, and many others. She’s received the Southwest Book Award, New Ohio Review’s Poetry Prize chosen by Tyehimba Jess, Phoebe Journal’s Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the Pinch Journal Poetry Prize chosen by Ada Limón, and Cutthroat’s Joy Harjo Poetry Prize.

Givhan has taught at the University of Washington Bothell’s MFA program as well as Western New Mexico University and has guest lectured at universities across the country. She is currently the Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at The University of New Mexico.

Her newest novel SALT BONES is coming this July from Mulholland/Little, Brown.

JENNIFER'S NEW BOOK

Purchase Jennifer's books here:

Jubilee

River Woman River Demon

Trinity Sight