There are award lists, and there are award lists that can change an author's life.

SIMON SORT OF SAYS made the long list for the National Book Awards today. My editor called me while I was still in bed – but I have checked several times through the day, and this seems to be real, not a dream.

I'm gobsmacked.

Look what on the “editors recommend” page of the latest Ploughshares literary magazine!

Jane Hirshfield recommends A knife so sharp its edge cannot be seen, by Erin Noteboom (Brick Books, 2023). “Canadian poet Erin Noteboom—also a science communicator with The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics—is an observer of extraordinary acumen, muscularity, precision, and breadth. Drawing from physics, archeology, etymology, Chernobyl, the life and legacy of Marie Curie, and interior life, Noteboom’s poems have volume and edge, resonance and bite, an equal abundance of feeling and mind. These sui generis, often small poems throw a large and expanding light.

Many thanks to the iconic Bank Street College of Education for making Simon Sort of Says the Children’s Book Committee pick for September. The young reader doing the review just GOT it. Favourite line: “The main character, Simon, went from a lonely, traumatized boy, to a happy, sociable, traumatized boy.” Yes. Exactly.

I love it when my writing connects with kids — but an extra layer of amazing when when a young reader or reviewer connects back.

It’s festival season again! There are always. a bunch of public appearances in the fall. Here are some of the places you can catch me.

• September 16: Telling Tales Festival in Hamilton, Ontario

• September 26: Toronto International Festival of Authors

• September 27: Kingston Writers Festival in Kingston, Ontario

• October 28: Wild Writers Festival in Waterloo, Ontario

• November 17-18: Miami Book Fair

The National Education Association has chosen Simon Sort of Says as one of the books for the Read Across America program – which is 900 percent more my thing than the Run Across American campaign featured in the book. (Ask me sometime about being drafted onto the cross country team in high school.)

Read Across America recommends books and creates activities and resources for teachers and students.

SIMON will be the Middle Grade novel for January, but check out the whole calendar here!

The mysterious Amazon Editors have named Simon Sort of Says a “Best Book of 2023 So Far”.

There’s a sticker for this and everything. This one is a little weird, but it will help Simon find its way to kids who might need it — so I will take it!

On Saturday a friend I hadn't heard from in an age called me out of the blue to scream happily that MY BOOK WAS ON CBC NEXT CHAPTER.

I have always wanted to be on The Next Chapter – it’s one of my favorite radio shows, and I hardly ever miss it. With Shelagh Rogers retiring, this may be as close as I get, and I'm just thrilled. Thank you to the children's book panel for including Simon Sort of Says in the round-up of nine books for kids to read this summer. There are some wonderful Canadian authors here, and two of my favourite international YA writers, Frances Hardinge and Elizabeth Wein.

A milestone for my weird little book: a spot in the Memorial Day Weekend book review section of the New York Times. The one with Martin Luther King on the cover.

I nearly fainted when I saw that they’d gotten Erin Entrada Kelly to pen the review. And I will certainly grab a few of these pull quotes:

“Her characters are authentic, multidimensional and complex.”

“The book delivers on laughs.”

“A fully realized journey from denial to recovery.”

“Funny, poignant and—most important—hopeful.”

SWOOOOOOON.