In honor of National Reading Month and National Write Your Story Day, Prime Video is excited to bring together award-winning authors to share their best advice with educators in cultivating young writers’ storytelling skills. Join us on March 13th for Developing Storytellers: A Conversation with a Filmmaker and Acclaimed Authors from Judy Blume Forever. Launching on April 21st, the documentary Judy Blume Forever highlights one of the most renowned and influential authors of our time, Judy Blume. Known for her candid and authentic voice that resonates with children and adults alike, Judy Blume Forever captures and celebrates the need for authors of all ages to own their voices and tell their stories. Come hear from featured film participants Co-Director Leah Wolchok, celebrated author Pat Scales, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Cecily von Ziegesar to discover ways to build strong writers and promote artistic creative expression in your classrooms. Join us for an inspiring conversation about creative writing, storytelling, and a love for all books.

About the Presenters

Leah Wolchok is a writer and director who won an Emmy for her first feature documentary, Very Semi-Serious, which was broadcast on HBO. The film was a NY Times Critics’ Pick, won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and received the inaugural HBO/Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Fund grant. She co-produced the Independent Lens documentary Ask Not and directed four award-winning short films. Wolchok received a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale and a master’s in documentary production from Stanford, and her highest honor is being the mom of two awesome kids.

Pat R. Scales is a retired school librarian whose programs have been featured on the Today Show. She has served as an adjunct instructor of young adult literature at Furman University and has been a guest lecturer at various universities. A First Amendment advocate, she was chair of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Coalition Against Censorship. She is a past president of the Association of Library Service for Children and chaired the 1992 Newbery Award Committee, the 2003 Caldecott Award Committee, and the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Committee. She writes a bimonthly column for School Library Journal. Her books include Books Under Fire: A Hit List of Banned and Challenged Children’s Books, Second Edition, Teaching Banned Books: 32 Guides for Children and Teens, Second Edition, and Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your School Library.

Cecily von Ziegesar is the author of the worldwide #1 bestselling Gossip Girl book series and the original creator of Blair Waldorf, Serena van der Woodsen, Chuck Bass, Nate Archibald, Jenny and Dan Humphrey and all the other much-loved Gossip Girl characters who became household names. Her notorious satires of life on the Upper East Side have been translated into thirty-three languages and were adapted for television by Warner Bros. Studios. She is also the author of Cum Laude (Hyperion) and Dark Horses (Soho Press). Her most recent novel, Cobble Hill (Atria/Simon & Schuster) was published in 2021 to much acclaim. Cecily and her family live in Brooklyn, New York.

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Time: 5:00 pm — 6:00 pm EDT

Free!

Registration