October 2016

SCBWI NY17 Winter Conference Registration Opens October 25

Join us for #NY17SCBWI, the annual Winter Conference in NYC. Registration opens October 25 at 10AM PDT. A full schedule and information will be up on www.scbwi.org in October.

This year's spectacular Keynotes include Bryan Collier, Tahereh Mafi and Sara Pennypacker.

Three stellar panels:
Children's Books in the Social Media World: A Panel of Influencers
Four Types of Picture Books: An In-depth Look
The Current Landscape for Children's Books

As always this fantastic conference offers:

- Our acclaimed Faculty of editors, agents and art directors will lead special breakout sessions

- Opportunity to display your illustrations in the Portfolio Showcase

- Optional Friday intensives for writers and illustrators who want to dive deep into their craft
- Networking Gala

Mark Your Calendars!

Announcing New Home for Annual

Summer Conference in LA

We're excited to announce that the 46th and 47th annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles will be held at the JW Marriott at LA Live. This beautiful hotel is located directly next to LA Live, the premier downtown campus featuring sports and music venues, night clubs, restaurants, a bowling alley, museum and movie theaters.

IMPORTANT: 2017 SUMMER CONFERENCE DATES

General Conference: July 7 - 9, 2017

Optional Intensives: July 10, 2017

Plan ahead for this life-changing event! Registration will be open in early spring with more info coming soon. Save the dates!

Book Blast is Here

The Book Blast is off and running. In the first two weeks over 400 pages have been created. Click here to get started.

The Book Blast will run from Monday, October 10 and wrap up on Friday, November 18. SCBWI members and the general book buying public will be able to browse the pages and purchase books by our members.

Any member with a book published in 2016 is eligible to create a page. You can be part of Book Blast, and purchase and create your own page for the same price as last year of $25. Let's all support the Book Blast program. Browse. Buy. Enjoy!

Noteworthy

Work-in-Progress Grant Winners Announced

SCBWI congratulates the winners of the 2016 Work-In-Progress Grants and Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award. Works by authors and artists in the categories of Picture Book Text, Chapter Books/Early Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction and Multicultural Fiction or Nonfiction are eligible. The Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award celebrates a traditionally unpublished author over the age of fifty. Read the full press release

First Book, NEA Foundation, and Lee & Low are looking for authors!

First Book and the NEA Foundation are working with Lee & Low to introduce a new middle grade or young adult book by a never-before-published author of color, as part of the publisher's existing New Visions Award. Read the full press release

Going to NCTE?
Are you attending NCTE and want to sign books? If so, contact Claudia Pearson at

southern-breeze@scbwi.org for info about a book signing and reception hosted by SCBWI Southern Breeze.

Date: Saturday, November 19 4:00pm - 5:30pm. The public book signing will be followed by a reception from 5:30pm - 7:30pm.

About NCTE

SCBWI Exclusive with...

Danielle Smith, Agent, Red Fox Literary

An agent at Red Fox Literary, Danielle Smith began her career as the well-known blogger behind the online review site There's a Book. Her reviews have also appeared in Parenting Magazine and Women's World. Recently she was honored by Publisher's Weekly as one of Top 40 Rising Stars in the publishing industry during 2016. Danielle's most recent sales include Wild Blues by Beth Kephart (CAITLYN DLOULY/S&S 2018), The Queer History Project: No Way, They Were Gay? by Lee Wind (Beyond Words/September 2017), Walk Your Dog by Elizabeth Stevens Omlor and illustrator Neesha Hudson (Putnam Children's/Summer 2017) and The Great Indoors by Julie Falatko (Disney Hyperion/2019). When she's not got her nose in a book, Danielle can be found spending time with her two kiddos and husband exploring the town they love.

What led you to children's book publishing and becoming an agent?

There are children out in the world, everywhere, looking for that one book; a book to tuck. It's the book we recall as adults when asked "what was the book?" It speaks to our hearts, our dreams and even those things we don't yet know. A young boy, my son, who couldn't speak were it for a copy Trucks Trucks Trucks by Peter Sis and many readings over time which would bring his voice back to us. Books open worlds and change lives; I can think of no better industry then children's publishing and no better job than a literary agent.

Illustrator Info

#NY17SCBWI Illustrator Intensive Teaser

By Sarah Baker

On October 25, registration opens for the 18th annual Winter Conference in New York. On Friday, February 10, we'll hold the Illustrator's Intensive, and the theme is Collaboration. The intensive is organized each year by Pat Cummings, Laurent Linn and Cecilia Yung, all members of the Illustration Committee of the SCBWI Board of Advisors. You'll have to wait until October for the full schedule, but for now, I've asked them to let us know:

Why I'm excited about the New York Conference Illustrator Intensive:

Pat Cummings

You work alone. Just you and that blank paper that's waiting for you to dive in and surprise yourself. Leaping into the void can be a LOT less rattling and considerably more exciting when you have others ready to offer feedback and support. Our bunny-eat-bunny business is all about communication. But will readers get the humor . . . the emotions . . . the suspense you're working so hard to convey? On one panel we'll examine how finding or forming a peer group might provide that oh-so-helpful feedback: Collaboration.

This Illustrators Intensive will explore a myriad of ways that collaboration might inform, inspire and invigorate your work.

On the Shelves

Bookshop Santa Cruz

Bookshop Santa Cruz is celebrating it's fiftieth year of business this year.

Ga Lombard, Children's Section Bookbuyer, tells us how the store has remained an essential element to the town.

What sets Bookshop Santa Cruz apart from other bookstores?

Our children's section is inclusive in so many ways. We've always cared about a child being able to see themselves reflected in our books. We have a diverse selection of books about science, history, politics, poetry and art, as well as an extensive collection of graphic novels and infant and toddler picture books. One of the books I intend to promote this year is Their Great Gift: Courage, Sacrifice, and Hope in a New Land by John Coy. There are scores of successful individual immigration stories---for example, Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey or his autobiographical mixed media picture book Drawing from Memory---but until now, it has seemed almost impossible to write a composite immigration picture book essay without coming off like "we are the world". Their Great Gift is clear, honest and lovely, and it belongs in all elementary school classrooms.

Tribeshare

We want your photos! Tag us on Twitter/Instagram/ Facebook with pictures relating to kids or kids books. Use #scbwitribeshare and we'll choose new snaps each month to share.


Stephanie Johnson, Lin Oliver, and Dow Phumiruk at the Rocky Mountain Region conference

Judy Schachner (with Donkey) at the Rocky Mountain conference


	Rocky Mountain members buy The Best Man at Tattered Cover

"Editors Who Write" panel: Cheryl Klein, Jill Santopolo, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Andrea Pinkney at SCBWINY Metro

The Illustrator Showcase at the SCBWI Australia Conference

Draw This!

Draw This! is our monthly prompt word for illustrators.

Click HERE for the gallery depicting all the month's entries. The September word was Swift. Congratulations to our winners!


	Carrie O'Neill

Kristen Adam

October's prompt is . . . FRIGHT

Entries are due October 20 to scbwidrawthis@scbwi.org

Submissions for October will be up in our November gallery.

Click here for submission guidelines

Write This! October Prompt

Write This! is on a bi-monthly schedule. The winners will be announced in the November Insight. Send all entries to scbwiwritethis@scbwi.org by October 20.

The October prompt is: As we enter the fall season, we reflect on the many meanings of the word fall. For this month's prompt, provide a dramatic description of a fall---physical, emotional or spiritual. 125 words or less.