 20 years of Master Class to Masterpiece |
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SARAH SHUMWAY Executive Editor Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
Sarah is excited to find tender, touching, literary middle grade, as well as more fun and/or funny voices; and buzzy teen fiction with thoughtful, deep themes, strong characters, and voice. She has a soft spot for romance in YA, and isn’t afraid of more mature themes. Sarah is particularly interested in working with a wide array of authors with diverse perspectives, on books that show young people empathetic and empowering views of our world. Sarah’s list: Her middle grade fiction includes the Ryan Hart series, starting with Ways to Make Sunshine by Newbery Honor- and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Renée Watson; the in-verse Reckless, Glorious, Girl by Ellen Hagan, and fantasy such as the Unicorn Quest series by Kamilla Benko. Her YA tastes tend toward compelling concepts that ask big questions, and soapy, twisty contemporary stories such as How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao. Citing her then-debut YA author Mindy McGinnis’ Not a Drop to Drink (2013), Sarah said, “The books I’ve always loved most are those that show me something that I’ve never even imagined and make it real, make me feel. And I love wild books—ones where characters, especially strong girls, have to work to squeeze a good life from a harsh world.” |
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Sarah Shumway edits picture books through a broad range of middle-grade and YA fiction. She says, “I love weblike drama and very pure emotion, and I’d like it intersectional and inclusive in lovely and complicated ways.”