Thank You! (And Save The Dates For #NY18SCBWI and #LA18SCBWI

Thank you for following along for #LA17SCBWI with us!

Team Blog #LA17SCBWI: from left, Sona Charaipotra, Jaime Temairik, Lee Wind, Jolie Stekly, and Susie Ghahremani.

And here are the dates for the 19th Annual Winter Conference in New York City: February 2-4, 2018.

With full-day intensives for both writers and illustrators
Juried Portfolio Showcase with grand prize
Network with top editors, agents, and publishers
Be in the center of the children's publishing industry
Workshops, Keynotes, networking, and much more!

Online conference registration will be posted in October at scbwi.org

And for the 47th Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles: August 3-6, 2018.

With over 75 workshops and 15 keynote speakers
Monday post-conference intensives
Special hands-on workshops for illustrators, Craft intensives for published, self-published, and pre-published authors
Individual manuscript or portfolio critiques
Juried portfolio showcase with grand prize and mentorship opportunities

Online conference registration will be posted in March 2018 at scbwi.org

Diversity Social at #LA17SCBWI

Did you check out the Diversity Social at #LA17SCBWI?

The Diversity Social began with remarks about We Need Diverse Books by Sona Charaipotra, Miranda Paul, and Linda Sue Park, followed by greetings from some of WNDB's founding members and SCBWI faculty support.

I loved hearing about the successes of their mentorship programs and advocacy programs -- from partnerships with the Scholastic Book Club to measurable results of WNDB's mentorship program. 

An attendee asked how they can support diverse authors if they are not from a diverse background. The committee suggested:

• Buy and read diverse books, and support those authors.
• Talk about diverse books; promote those authors and their books.
• Advocate for diverse voices to be represented at events or programming you're involved in.
• Write and illustrate characters from diverse backgrounds. Pat Cummings asked: do your characters default to a specific ethnicity or background?
• Mentor with WNDB, if applicable. (generally looking for authors with multiple books published in a particular genre.)

After the Q&A, there was time to mingle. I enjoyed chatting with first-time conference attendees / authors Traci Sorrell, Lindsey Metcalf, and Madonna Bock [from the KS/MO chapter]; agent Stefanie von Borstel of Full Circle Literary; Executive Art Director Cecilia Yung at Penguin Random House; and many others at this thoughtful, relaxed gathering.

You can sign up for the WNDB mailing list to be notified when mentorship applications are available.

Check out WNDB's new book discovery app called Our Story

The Diversity Social at #LA17SCBWI

Linda Sue Park, Alex Gino, and Miranda Paul share the scoop on the diversity social happening Saturday lunchtime in these interviews on SCBWI: The Blog! 

Hope to see you there,
Lee