{"id":883,"date":"2016-10-01T10:26:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-01T15:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?p=883"},"modified":"2016-10-01T10:26:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T15:26:40","slug":"kc-writes-interview-angela-cervantes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/kc-writes-interview-angela-cervantes\/","title":{"rendered":"KC Writes Interview-Angela Cervantes"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this month’s KC Writes interview, I put on my Managing Editor hat and put away my podcast recorder to speak with Angela Cervantes.\u00a0 Angela is a middle grade writer based in Kansas City; we met at the Missouri Writers Guild Convention in March of this year.\u00a0 I sat in the audience during her presentation, and fifteen minutes in a slide of Kansas City Voices popped up.\u00a0 Turns out we published her back in 2007. (Long before I was involved with the magazine.) Well I’d been having a bit of a crisis about whether I was going to continue my editorial work because I never really see how it effects people, and there Angela stood the ultimate success story at just the moment I needed to hear it. I feel very fortunate to have crossed her path, and very lucky she made time for me to interview her. \"Angela

JC:<\/strong> Did you know you wanted to write for kids when you started out?<\/p>\n

AC: <\/strong>I\u2019ve dreamed of writing books for children since I was a child. However, to be honest, I never thought I was qualified to be a kidlit<\/em> writer so I stashed that dream away and focused on other things for a long time. Later, when I met my literary agent and she told me that she thought my voice showed great promise for middle grade, it was like a spiritual high-five. Now, I\u2019m writing what I love.<\/p>\n

JC:<\/strong> How do you get to be a Reading Superhero? And what does a Reading Superhero do?<\/p>\n

AC: <\/strong>Okay, so I don\u2019t have a cape or mask, but I\u2019ve been chosen by Scholastic to be one of its Summer Reading Superheroes. Who needs a cape when I get to encourage young readers to read over the summer? It\u2019s the best!<\/p>\n

Every year, Scholastic promotes a Summer Reading Challenge to encourage independent reading among young readers during summer vacation. Everyone knows, or should know by now, that reading during the off-school months is super important for continued learning. This year\u2019s Summer Reading Challenge theme is \u201cBe A Reading Superhero\u201d and our duty is to encourage young readers to read this summer and log their summer reading minutes to earn rewards, AND help set a new world record for summer reading. That\u2019s pretty exciting stuff. I read that last year kids from all 50 states and 28 countries read 286,611,349 minutes. That\u2019s some serious summer reading.<\/p>\n

For me, the best part of being a superhero is that this Fall, Scholastic will recognize the top school in every state for their summer reading accomplishments and I\u2019ll have the chance to visit the top school in my lovely state of Kansas and present them with their winning plaque. I\u2019m looking forward to this visit in a big way because I love anything that involves reading and giving away prizes.<\/p>\n

JC:<\/strong> What\u2019s your Kansas City Voices<\/em> story? And how did our publication of your story, \u201cTen Hail Mary\u2019s,\u201d affect your writing career?<\/p>\n

AC: <\/strong>I was lucky enough to have my story win the Kansas City Voice\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0\u201cBest Of Prose\u201d in 2007 and, on the same day as the award ceremony, there \"allie_highresnew2\"

JC:<\/strong> Do you believe writers are born, taught, or both? Which is true for you?<\/p>\n

AC: <\/strong>I\u2019m not sure what is true for me. I don\u2019t know why I chose to write rhyming poems over playing with dolls as a child. I don\u2019t know why I always preferred to tell ghost stories instead of playing beer pong with my friends in high school, but I did and I was encouraged by my friends, teachers, and family to keep going. All I know is that writing is breathing. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever stop until I really have to stop and that part is completely out of my control.<\/p>\n

JC:<\/strong> Who are some Kansas City based writers or artists we should keep our eye on?<\/p>\n

AC: <\/strong>There are so many, but I\u2019m a big fan of poet Gustavo Adolfo Aybar. He\u2019s a Cave Canem fellow and 2016 winner of the \u201cWillow Books Literature Prize for Poetry.\u201d I\u2019ve known him since my Latino Writers Collective days and have always admired his poetry. He just released his first chapbook, Between Line Breaks.<\/em>\u00a0I still need to get my signed copy. He reads around town, so if you get a chance please check him out.<\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong>www.angelacervantes.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Scholastic Reading Challenge <\/strong>http:\/\/oomscholasticblog.com\/post\/2016-scholastic-summer-reading-challenge-has-begun?linkId=25566593<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this month’s KC Writes interview, I put on my Managing Editor hat and put away my podcast recorder to speak with Angela Cervantes.\u00a0 Angela is a middle grade writer based in Kansas City; we met at the Missouri Writers Guild Convention in March of this year.\u00a0 I sat in the audience during her presentation,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,54],"tags":[48,25,51],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKC Writes Interview-Angela Cervantes - Jessica Conoley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this month's KC Writes interview Angela Cervantes shares her journey from Kansas City Voices to Reading Super Hero to middle-grade author.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KC Writes Interview-Angela Cervantes - 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