Kokila Editor Joanna Cárdenas is on faculty for this year’s SCBWI-L.A. Working Writers Retreat (WWR). She has worked on critically-acclaimed award-winning books such as The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez and The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. Prior to joining Kokila at the launch of the Penguin Random House imprint last year, she was an editor at Viking Children’s Books.

Joanna is also on the steering committee for Latinx in Publishing, a nonprofit organization that promotes literature by, for, and about Latino/a/x people, and is a co-founder of the Representation Matters Mentor Program for aspiring editors of color. She’s here today to share her advice for authors, talk about Kokila, and tell us about what she’d like to see in her inbox.

Farrha Khan: We’re excited to have you at this year’s Working Writer’s Retreat! As an editor, what are you hoping to accomplish at these kinds of events? And what are you excited to see or learn?  Continue reading →