writermag.com • The Writer | 21Shovan and Faruqi first connected through PitchWars, a
program where authors and other publishing professionals
choose a writer to mentor. Shovan was a mentor, and Faruqi
applied to be a mentee. Shovan and her co-mentor didn’t
pick Faruqi’s book, but they stayed in touch with her. Sho-
van pitched her agent on a book loosely based on her child-
hood about a first-generation American whose immigrant
mother struggles with life in the U.S. Her agent suggested
doing it as a collaborative middle grade novel. “Who’s your
dream person that you’d like to work with?” Shovan recalls
her agent asking. Shovan thought of Faruqi because she
admired her writing and knew that Faruqi had a different
immigration experience to draw from.
Their book uses dual perspectives: one from a Pakistani-
American girl and the other from a half-British girl. “Our
willingness to negotiate with each other really did mirror
what the characters had to do as they become friends and
support each other,” Shovan says.
Virtually every author interviewed for this article stressed
the importance of choosing a coauthor who respects your
input. “We try to be as egoless as possible,” says Jorge Lacera,who coauthored the picture book Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies!
with his wife, Megan Lacera. “It’s always about the work.
We’re just trying to make the best product that we can. [If we
disagree,] we’ll both defend why we think something should
move forward, and usually during that process, it’ll become
clear what way to do it.” (Jorge Lacera also illustrated their
picture book.)
Still, Megan Lacera admits to occasional hurt feelings. “I
value his opinion more than anyone else,” she says. “If he
doesn’t like something, I know it has to be better.”
Both people must feel ownership of the project, too. Mih-
aly and Heavenrich shared an interest in entomophagy, the
practice of eating bugs. After several years attending many of
the same workshops and participating in a critique group
together, they worked up a book proposal about the environ-
mental benefits of insect protein.“Sitting on the swing at a retreat
eating crickets together really
sealed the deal. We knew that
we were definitely going down
the same road.”
Diet for a Changing Climate started as a non-
fiction picture book idea, then progressed to
middle grade, and finally wound up at a YA
imprint, with a focus on eating not just insects
but also invasive animals and plants. “Both of us
were invested in it,” says Heavenrich. “Sitting on
the swing at a retreat eating crickets together
really sealed the deal. We knew that we were defi-
nitely going down the same road.”
Mihaly says of their collaboration, “We were
very comfortable critiquing each other’s work and
taking one another’s edits. We trusted each other’s
writing and editing to making it accurate.”
Many coauthors already have published
books before teaming up with another author.
Not so for the Laceras or for Charles Waters,
who cowrote Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of
Race, Mistakes, and Friendship with Irene
Latham. When Latham came up with the idea
for a dual-narrative poetry book about racism,
she knew Waters’ work from poetry anthologies
and asked if he’d be interested. “[She has] been
my gateway into having my own book because
I’ve been in about 23 children’s poetry antholo-
gies, but I never had a book with my name on
the cover,” Waters says.
When approaching Waters, Latham suggested
they both write on the topic of racism. “Before we
launched into this situation, let’s be sure it’s going
to work,” she says. After getting Waters’ response
with sample poems, Latham says she could tell
“that he was quick, enthusiastic, and willing to be
vulnerable and take risks. These were all really
important as the editor was hot for the project
yesterday, and we all knew the subject matter
would require a special, trusting relationship. It
just worked right from the get-go, and I am so
grateful!” In fact, outside of their literary collabo-
ration, Waters and Latham have become such
close friends that Latham’s kids now call him
“Uncle Charles.”
Communication is also key to a successful col-
laboration. Latham stressed the importance of
“being able to communicate with one another
and sharing the same kind of overarching goal.
This is what we’re trying to do. Whatever happens
in between, you can always come back to what
you have in common.”
Mihaly adds that “if you think you don’t want
to do [a] particular task, being clear and not let-
ting anything fester is a really important thing to
remember when collaborating.”