Cynthia Leitich Smith's First Book Story

How did the people who wrote the kid’s books you love get their start? Listen to My First Book Story podcast to hear some great stories, including my interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith. I share some of the highlights below.

In the early 90’s, after Cynthia graduated law school, she was clerking in Chicago, never planning to write children’s books. One day a picture book caught her eye,  Dancing With the Indians by Angela Shelf Medearis. Cynthia says, “ it included contemporary Native people and it was a positive story . . .  most of the depictions I had seen of Indigenous people were either trapped in the past or were centered on landmark historic events.”

As a citizen of the Muscogee Nation who had always loved books, she wondered if there was room for stories informed by some of her own childhood experiences.  And then a homemade truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995. Cynthia had a lot of family living in Oklahoma, and she was working in a federal building at the time while there were numerous copycat threats across the country.

It made Cynthia realize, “ None of us knows how much time we have here, and I wanted to do something that was positive for the world.” And so she decided to pursue writing children’s books.

“ None of us knows how much time we have here, and I wanted to do something that was positive for the world.”

She started by connecting to the Austin SCBWI community and joined a critique group where she could get and give feedback. “After an enormous amount of investment of time and money and education, I was entering into literary arts, and most of the people in my before life thought that was not the most well-advised decision. It meant so much to me to be surrounded by other creative souls who were lifting each other up.”

She also became a student of both the craft and the industry, studying books and industry professionals to build files of resources. She attended writing retreats, and pushed outside her comfort zone creatively. She became an expert at rejection as she sent submissions out again and again. After hearing online about an editor who was interested in  contemporary stories of Indigenous people, she sent a picture book manuscript she’d been working on called Jingle Dancer. Meanwhile two editors at conferences also expressed interest in the same book.

It was great news, but Cynthia was concerned that she’d broken protocol, not informing editor #1 about editors 2 and 3. She reached out to an agent she met through a private online group who told Cynthia,  “having multiple editors interested and enthusiastic about one's manuscript is not what we in publishing call a problem." Ha! There is lots of laughter in our interview.

Cynthia went with editor #1, Rosemary Brosnan, and partnered with the agent, Ginger Knowlton. She works with them both to this day. Her first published book was Jingle Dancer, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and his wife Ying Hwa-Hu. It’s the story of a contemporary Native American girl who turns to her family and community to gather enough jingles for the skirt she’ll dance in at their powwow.

Cynthia humbly admits, “ I can read, I can write, I can talk. That's basically it. I can't drive. I only learned to cook during the pandemic. That's it. But reading, writing, and talking works as a children's author.” Also, she’s kidding. If you know her, you know Cynthia Leitich Smith is a force. She stands up for the disadvantaged, she dreams big and then makes it happen, and she brings as many people with her as she can. She lifts up so many, I have no idea how she holds all that weight. But yes, she can also read, write and talk. And she has so many good things to say to kids (and adults).

When speaking about her decision to pursue children’s publishing all those years ago, Cynthia says, “ I was really happy to be connected with a profession that kept its conflict on the page and was more rooted in collaboration and just intrinsically hopeful and future-oriented.” I think she nails what I love about working in children’s books. We are a hopeful bunch.

I always end my interviews by asking how much is hard work, and how much is due to things entirely out of your hands. Cynthia gives it an 80/20 split, 80 percent hard work, and 20 percent the stuff that’s out of your control. “ I think you have to remember that, yeah, there's magic in the industry and the world, but there's also magic in you, and you can tap into it. Never sell yourself short. You have what it takes.” This same women sent me a fairy door that I mounted on the baseboard of my office wall. She’s the real deal, and perhaps a fairy godmother to boot.

Cynthia Leitich Smith (Mvskoke Nation) is the 2027 American Indian Writers Award winner, 2026 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature winner, a two-time American Indian Youth Literature [Young Adult] Award winner, and has received many, many other awards. She’s also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperChildren’s. She’s a New York Times bestselling author, and her latest titles include HERE COME THE AUNTIES!, FIREFLY SEASON, and LEGENDARY FRYBREAD DRIVE-IN: INTERTRIBAL STORIES.

• the look on my grandson’s face in the mirror after seeing his face painted for the first time (he was a wolf). He proceeded to howl throughout the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

• writing a picture book with my husband about our doodle as we drove back to TX from CA

• inhabiting familiar spaces again, and visiting my youngest and his new wife in their new home-they’ve nested well

  

  

  My name is Meredith Davis, and I’m an award winning writer of middle grade books, a former indie bookseller, founder of the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Learn about my books, teaching resources and author visit information on my website (www.meredithldavis.com) Mother to three, Nana to two, I live with my husband and a crazy doodle in Austin, Texas.