Naseem HrabTag

Governor General's Literary Award Winners Revealed with Wins for Sheila Heti and Eli Baxter

This morning, the Canada Council for the Arts revealed the 2022 winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards (now branded as GGBooks). The English language winners are Sheila Heti for fiction, ...

Naseem Hrab's Adorable Snail Party Picture Book is a Love Letter to Homebodies of All Ages

While everyone loves a special occasion, we all have different ideas about the perfect way to celebrate. Some people may love a big, boisterous party, but plenty of people find that all a bit overwhelming ...

How to Make Your Longest, Darkest Nights Shine

The Winter Solstice is happening as I write this column. It’s the shortest day of the year and the longest, darkest night of the year. But during this time, every night often feels like the longest, ...

Children’s Book Gift Guide for Little (and Big) Bookworms

I love buying children’s books for my niece and nephew. They all have such different personalities and interests and it’s so fun for me to find books I think they’ll enjoy. And I also love buying ...

You, Too, Can Be a Mediocre YouTube Star

A few fun facts about me: When I was about five-years-old, I starred as Dopey in a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at camp and killed it. Everyone was laughing. I also studied improv for ...

How to Be Exceptionally Editable

When I first started writing children’s books, I possessed the strength and virility of a thousand strong and virile men. I believed in my ideas and held fast to them. While I was open to the editorial ...

The Power of a Great Title

 We all know about the power of a good cover, but what about the power of a great title?I’ve worked in publishing for nearly fifteen years now and attended upwards of seventy-five tradeshows across ...

Five Tips for Writing About Tough Topics for Children and Teens

The best comedy often comes from life’s darker moments. Read up on any comedian and you’ll likely learn about their tumultuous beginnings, middles and ends. (Especially, on Twitter. Literally. At ...

How to Keep Making Children’s Books Right Now, Or Not

As this new normal becomes, well, more normal, those of us able to self-isolate may start to find a bit of space in-between all of our feelings and obligations to build new writing routines, drawing routines ...

All of this listening

It was hard to write this column. Like everyone else, I’m all for trying to grasp at normalcy where I can, but I don’t have many writing tips to share right now. (Actually, I do have one writing tip: ...