CONGRATULATIONS to the #scbwiWinter22 Scholarship Winners & the 2022 Spark Award Winners

 Congratulations to the #scbwiWinter 22 Scholarship Recipients. 

BIPOC Scholarship

Marzieh Abbas

Karen Chow

Zahra Haque

Sonya Kenkare

Tiara Luten

Sherri Mercer

Ebony Mudd

Akbar Shabazz Jenkins

Beverly Taylor

Morris Washington

General Scholarship

NaShanta Fletcher

Kyle Horne

Andrea Campos

Effie Koliopoulos

Farnaz Nadim

Student Writer Scholarship

Jazmín Abels

Sarah Rouhier

Student Illustrator Scholarship

Tsae Yung (Kelly) Wu

Elena Aguirre Uranga

THE SPARK AWARDS

And a big round of applause to the winners of this year's Spark Awards. The Spark Award is an annual award that recognizes excellence in children's books published through a non-traditional publishing route. 

Spark Winners

Picture Book:

Imani's Undersea Adventure by T.M. Jackson

Book for Older Readers Winner:

Blue by L.E. DeLano

Spark Honor Books

Picture Book:

Read Island, written by Nicole Magistro, Illustrated by Alice Feagan 

Book for Older Readers:

The Girl in the Triangle by Joyana Peters

Illustration Award Winners Announced!

It's always incredibly exciting to find out who won the various illustrator awards given at each conference.

Sarah Baker just announced this year's winners, starting with the Tomie DePaola award, named after the beloved illustrator who also serves as the contest judge. Three hundred people applied this year, creating illustrations inspired by Chicken Licken.

Runner up: Laurie Eslick

Tomie loved the painterly style of her illustration, and he challenged her to take it further.

Laurie Eslick

The winner: Yvette Piette Herrera
Tomie loved her style and found the round composition a unique take on the round robin story.

Yvette Piette Herrera

Student illustrator scholarship Two fulltime illustration students, Davin Choi and Eunhye Seo, won conference tuition for their work. Both are students at Rhode Island School of Design, coincidentally. A panel of industry professionals judged.

And the big one: the portfolio showcase ...
One-hundred and eighty-five illustrators competed, and 350 of the top professionals in the industry reviewed them during a cocktail party on Friday night.

"We were all really proud of the illustrators who presented their portfolios," Sarah Baker said. The judges looked carefully and took away a lot of promotional postcards. "I'm sure a lot of connections were made Friday night." 

Runners up

Wook Jim Jung

Wook Jim Jung

Lori Nichols

Lori Nichols

And the winner...

Mike Curato! 

Mike Curato