The Art of the Picture Book Panel begins!

Lin introduces the picture book panel, from Left to Right, Moderator Arthur A. Levin, Shadra Strickland, Oliver Jeffers, Marla Frazee, Raúl Colón and Peter Brown.

Dana Arnim: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

A few sketches from Dana Arnim:

• Dana is an illustrator and a website designer. She received her BFA from the University of Washington. She is active in the Western Washington chapter of SCBWI as the Co-Regional Advisor.

Andy Musser: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Andy is in with these images…

Andy Musser is an illustrator/animator who loves to write stories and draw silly pictures. He received his B.F.A from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, having studied both illustration and animation. Andy lives near Seattle where he works with a variety of companies as a freelancer. To view his work, please visit his website: www.andymusser.com

Arree Chung: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Arree is in with these images:

Inspired by Kate Messner's inspiring keynote

Elizabeth Wein

Paul Aiken on the Future of Authorship Keynote panel

Arree loves storytelling and art. After working in management and consulting fields, Arree decided to pursue his love of art at Art Center College of Design.

Since graduating from Art Center, Arree has worked in the Entertainment Industry as a Concept Artist and Art Director. Arree's calling to make children's books began midway through his time at Art Center. In 2010, Arree won first place at the SCBWI Western Washington Portfolio show. Although this was a good start, it would be a few more years until Arree would get his opportunity to be published.

While attending the Illustrator Intensive at SCWBI 2012 Summer Conference, Arree received his big break. Arree's picture book dummy, Ninja! showed promise. Shortly thereafter, Arree began to work with literary agent Rubin Pfeffer. In November of 2012, Ninja! was acquired by Henry Holt as a part of a three picture book deal. Ninja! publishes June 3, 2014.

Arree continues to work on several picture book stories as well as writing a middle grade novel encompassing the Immigrant experience. Arree lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can find out more about Arree at his website, http://arree.com/

Arree also shared these bonus illustrations from the Friday illustrator intensive, writing "The brilliant Tomie dePaola shares his knowledge of theatre and how it influences his illustration work.":

Mike Curato: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Mike is in with this image, also inspired by Jack Gantos' keynote - pulling out a visual pun!

Mike Curato is an illustrator/author/designer living and working in Brooklyn. His debut picture book Little Elliot, Big City premiers 9/2. This is his third SCBWI Winter Conference.

You can visit his website here.

Student Writer Scholarships

Bonnie Bader and Ellen Hopkins present the student writer scholarships to the Summer and Winter Conferences for full-time university students in an English or Creative Writing program. 

Heather Richard

Kelly Wisdom

Patrice Caldwell

Congratulations, MFA-ers! This scholarship includes:

–Full tuition to main conference events including keynotes and breakout sessions. (Award does not include travel or hotel expenses.)

–Exclusive exposure to industry professionals at the conference.

–An SCBWI Conference advisor to help navigate the jammed-packed weekend.

PLUS:

LA Summer Conference:  An individual manuscript consultation of the first twenty pages of your manuscript with an industry professional and entrance to the Writers’ Intensive.

New York Winter Conference: Entrance to the Writers’ Roundtables, a roundtable-style manuscript critique of the first five hundred words of your manuscript with literary agents and editors.

For more information visit SCBWI.

Student Illustrator Scholarship Awards

Each year, the SCBWI sponsors four conference scholarships for full-time graduate or undergraduate students studying illustration. (Two for the New York conference, two for the Los Angeles conference)

The recipients are:

Aram Kim

and no relation,

Jaime Kim

Congratulations, students! And what an award!

Each scholarship provides:

Admission to all conference events including keynotes and breakout sessions

Entry in the Juried Portfolio Showcase.

*Note: The winner of the Los Angeles portfolio showcase receives a trip to New York City to meet with art directors

The Illustrator Intensive

An individual portfolio consultation with an illustrator, agent or art director (Los Angeles only)

Exclusive exposure to art directors at the conference

Transportation, accommodation and related expenses are not included.

Eligibility:

To be eligible, you must be currently enrolled as a full time graduate or undergraduate student at an accredited educational institution.

Applicants cannot have published a picture book or have received this scholarship before.

For more information, visit the SCBWI website.

Portfolio Showcase Awards

The Portfolio Showcase is a favorite feature of the pre-conference intensive for Illustrators. This unique opportunity to have your work viewed by the top children's literature professionals is open to SCBWI members only.

On Friday there was a private viewing of portfolios for over two hundred specially invited art directors, editors, and agents from children’s publishing. A jury of industry professionals selected a winner and runners up...

THREE Runners up this time...

Ruth Chan

Brooke Boynton Hughes

Katie Kath

Winner is...

LORI NICHOLS!!!

The Grand Prize Winner and Honor Award Winners will receive cash prizes, publicity and a spread in Picture Book.

The Portfolio Showcase is a fantastic opportunity for the illustrators who attend the Illustrator’s Intensive to have a private showcase of their work for members of the publishing community. Following the private (and juried) portion of this event, the Portfolio Showcase is open for viewing to all Illustrator Intensive participants.

Jane Yolen Mid-list Author Grants

Critically acclaimed children’s book author Jane Yolen created this grant to honor the contribution of mid-list authors.  The grant awards $3,000 to mid-list authors and aims to help raise awareness about their current works in progress.  Jane was the first SCBWI Regional Advisor and currently sits on the SCBWI Board of Advisors.

This award is given to writers who have had good careers, and not for a lack of talent, have perhaps stalled out. This is our way to say what you write is powerful and important and we don't want you to stop. 

Honor grants to...

Verla Kay
Deborah Lynn Jacobs

Congratulations to you both. 

And the WINNER of the Jane Yolen Mid-list Author Grant goes to...

EVE FELDMAN
Author of such works as BILLY AND MILLY, SHORT AND SILLY! (Putnam) and DOG CRAZY (Tambourine)

We look forward to the work we have yet to see from these wonderful authors. 

Happy 75th Birthday to Jane Yolen!

Right before the announcement of the Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Grant, Lin shared that it was Jane's birthday, so the more than 1,000 of us sung Jane Yolen "Happy Birthday!"

And after the singing, Lin announced that to honor Jane's birthday, her incredible career, and her commitment and years devoted to SCBWI, the SCBWI will be making a generous donation to the Dickinson Memorial Library in Whately, Massachusetts, towards building a collection in Jane’s name.


Thanks to Gaby Triana for the photo.

The 2014 Tomie dePaola Award

Lin's introduction of Tomie is heartfelt and lovely.  He is a legend!

Tomie is speaking about why he established his award, and how he based it on an assignment - not just "show me your artwork" but "show me how you can handle an assignment."

"And I'm the only judge. Isn't that great?"

This year, Tomie gave as the assignment one of Lin's poems that he had illustrated for their latest book, "Little Poems for Tiny Ears"

The line was,

A sneeze is a breeze in your nose.

This year, there were over 200 entries!

Tomie describes what he saw from the entries overall, he lists the runner-ups and while referring to their images on the big screen behind him, explains why he liked them, and how he thinks they might improve on it.

Lisa Cinelli
Jacob Grant
Arne Dawson
Alice Ratterree
Nina Goebel

and the winner is... Akiko White (who did her illustration in CAKE!)

Akiko comes up on stage and Tomie gives her a big hug, explains why her work won, and awards her the prize!

It's CAKE - and the winning image of the 2014 Tomie dePaola Award!

Tomie then announces and explains the new assignment, too - and how it's a two step assignment.
But it's a sneak-peek for conference attendees… Look for the details to be posted at scbwi.org soon!

You can read more (and see the honorable mention illustrations) here.

Congratulations to Akiko and Tomie!

The LGBTQ Q&A

Once again, it was my honor to host the LGBTQ Chat - a discussion of including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning characters and themes in works for children and teens.

Faculty members Jane Yolen, Emma Dryden and Ellen Hopkins spoke and answered attendee questions as we travelled around the circle and people shared what they were working on.

Emma shared some great market and story advice, and each of our faculty were encouraging - a true safe space. Some highlights and moments from our wonderful session:

Jane Yolen: "There's nothing off the table when you're writing a novel… if you do it well.  And then you set a new benchmark."

Ellen Hopkins: "Books don't create queers. The just offer empathy and understanding to that space."

And Ellen's call to action for us all to write the stories we need to write are still resonating:

"Be fearless!"

GALA DINNER

On Saturday night, SCBWI hosted a Gala Dinner for the conference attendees.

Drinks and buffet treats, organized by regions.

People ate. Drank. Reconnect with old friends. Made new ones. 

Regional Gala To Do

The calm before the storm! The world's most delicious martinis really are made from potatoes here, have you tried the mashed potatotini? Look at all this Miami Vice themed cheese we are about to enjoy!

RAs are taking bites early before a thousand of their regional members show up, hungry.

The hungry masses yearning to be fed.

Great night had by all.

Suzanne Kaufman: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Suzanne is in with two images from Laurent Linn's "Implementing Self Promotion For Illustrators" breakout workshop,

And two images from Holly McGhee's breakout workshop, "Developing Your Illustration Style/Brand":

Suzanne Kaufman is a award winning animator/author/illustrator of I LOVE MONKEY and just released her first Kindle book PRINCESS AND THE PEA for Amazon Children’s Publishing. Over the years, she’s done everything from animating special effects for Universal and Discovery, to animating award-winning video games. Before moving into children’s book publishing she was the Animation Lead at Sucker Punch Productions for Sly Cooper trilogy of games that were awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences “Innovation in Art Direction”, “Innovation in Animation” and “Children’s Title of the Year”. She lives in Seattle and teaches character animation and illustration at Digipen Institute of Technology.



Find out more at www.suzannekaufman.com and www.suzannekaufman.blogspot.com for her sketch of the days post.

Elizabeth O. Dulemba: Conference Illustrator Journal #NY14SCBWI

Elizabeth's in with

"my view"

and this great image of Jack Gantos, illustrating a moment from his keynote:

Thanks, Elizabeth!

Want to know more?

Elizabeth O. Dulemba is an award-winning children's book author/illustrator with two dozen titles to her credit. She gives back to the community that supports her as Illustrator Coordinator for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Southern Breeze region (Alabama, Georgia, Florida panhandle) and as a board member for the Georgia Center for the Book. She is a Visiting Associate Professor at Hollins University in the MFA in Children's Book Writing and Illustrating and Certificate in Children's Book Illustration programs. She also teaches writing and illustration at other venues and speaks regularly at schools, festivals, and events. Her latest picture book is LULA'S BREW (Xist Publishing) and her debut historical fiction mid-grade, A BIRD ON WATER STREET, will come out May 7 2014 (Little Pickle Press) and is available now via e-book formats here. Her "Coloring Page Tuesday" images (free to parents, teachers and librarians) garner around a million hits to her website annually with over 3,000 subscribers to her newsletter. Visit Elizabeth's website here.

Elizabeth also shared these sketches from Friday's illustrator intensive:

Paul O. Zelinsky

Tomie even signed this sketch Elizabeth did of him!

Susanna Reich: Banning Books: Where Do We Stand?

Susanna Reich is not only the author of many books including the wünderbar Julia Child picturebook bio, Minette's Feast, she's also the chair of Pen American's Children's and Young Adult Book Committee. 

Lin tells us Pen American is a sister organization to SCBWI and is a worldwide association of writers, promoting friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere. Their goal is to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for their views. 

PEN is strictly non-political, a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO and Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Susanna says most people don't realize that books for children and young adults make up the vast majority of banned books, 72 of the top 100 banned books this decade are children's books, with many of the remaining 28 being classics by authors that are normally read in school like Twain and Harper Lee.

Courts have ruled that public school officials do not legally have the right to remove a book from school library shelves simply because they disagree with the ideas of the book or find it personally offensive. One insidious way censorship is invisibly happening in school libraries, Susanna says, is when school officials push for pre-screening of titles for potentially offensive materials before the books are even purchased and are therefore never ever put on the school library shelf.

Despite the fact that the US has grown increasingly diverse, with 49.9% of children under five in 2012 being racially diverse, the number of non-white main characters in children's books has not changed in decades.

Enchanted Lion, Eerdman's, Kane Miller and Scholastic are a few of the only children's publishers that regularly publish translated works giving our American kids a chance to be exposed to different world and culture views.

What to do if your book gets banned?

1. Contact your publisher

2. Consider contacting the National Coalition Against Censorship, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (librarians are our best friends!), or Susanna's committee Pen American

3. Educate yourself, read up on the current laws cases concerning censorship

4. Contact your local newspapers and media sources and let them know about the book banning

5. Let your friends and community know via social media

Joan Bertin: Banning Books: Where Do We Stand?

Joan Bertin is the executive director of the National Coalition against Censorship. One of the organizations founding members is Judy Blume.

Now in it's 40th year, in partnership with of over 50 organizations, the National Coalition against Censorship works to defend intellectual freedoms. They have a good success rate, about 80%, when they get involved with a book challenge before the book is removed from the shelf. It's more challenging if it has already been removed.

Young adult books are the most widely challenged.

Joan turns to Ellen Hopkins (sitting on the panel): "Thank you, Ellen, for always producing work for us to defend."

Most challenges fail when there is resistance.

There are particular sites which review and rate books (and other media) in subjective ways. A great story can be lost when those go through only trying to flag the number of time profanity is used. These reviews send a message to parents to be fearful.

Joan says that we can't stop these sites, but it's concerning when school districts use the reviews/ratings as criteria for what is used in their schools.

If you want to protect intellectual freedoms, report challenges early. Alert your publisher and encourage them to issue their own statement. It can be very important. As writers, write stuff and stand up for other writers under attack, and stand up for kids who deserve to explore literature. Get involved with the school board, or even run for the school board. Often those who want to ban books are the ones who run for the school board, not those who support intellectual freedom.

Ellen Hopkins: Banning Books - Where Do We Stand?

The extremely accomplished Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins is the bestselling author of eight novels for young adults.

She's also written more than 20 nonfiction books, as well as a couple of adult novels.

Ellen is no stranger to controversy when it comes to book content. In 2010, she was the most-challenged author in the United States.

Her books about tough contemporary issues such as drug use and prostitution have been frequently challenged. She fights back vigorously, knowing from personal experience how vital some of these topics are for young readers to encounter in books. Eighteen years ago, her daughter tried drugs, and has struggled ever since. Sadly, Ellen reported that her daughter returned to prison today, and Ellen has become the guardian to her three young grandchildren.

Ellen has made it her mission to show the consequences of these painful decisions in literature. She writes books to change lives in a positive way.

"I was damn well determined if I was going to turn one kid away from that path, I was going to do it," Ellen said. "We write for our readers. We know who we're writing for. We know where they're living."

"If it's offensive to some parent, I don't care," she said. Books can help kids who've experienced traumas like sexual assault understand that they're not alone. 

She urged all of us writers to tell the truth, no matter what type of story we write. "That's your job as an author, and we will stand behind you." 

Elizabeth Wein Keynote: Bearing Witness: Authorial Responsibility

Elizabeth Wein has been an SCBWI member since 1991. Her first five books for young adults are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia, but she is best known for her recent World War II thrillers Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire. Code Name Verity was showered with an array of accolades including the Edgar Award, Printz Award Honor Book, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book, UK Literary Association Award, and SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Book. She and her family live in Scotland. You can find out more about Elizabeth at www.elizabethwein.com.

Elizabeth shares her story, from the last time she attended this conference being 12 years ago (when she had only one book out and a modest three book deal) to what she's learned since about the positive - and negative - aspects of success.

She speaks of tackling jealousy, self-consciousness about her own work, and the sense of wanting more recognition for years. Yet, when she looks back, she's "grateful it worked this way."

She now approaches her career with appreciation, and notes

"the tide comes and goes and comes back again."

She urges us to consider how important it is to maintain grace - in the face of adversity and success. (Things like not posting negative comments about anybody in any forum, not swearing in public, sending thank you notes etc…)

And then she speaks of how individual acts of professional courtesy have cumulative effects that are immeasurable. She lives this by shouting out to her writer friend Katherine Kirkpatrick, and even shares a poignant anecdote about Katherine's work - and challenges overcome - on her latest book, "Between Two Worlds."

Elizabeth continues to speak of responsibility being "something of a mantra" for her.

When asked about her message to young readers, she shares that running through everything she's written from The Winter Prince on the message is the same  - "Take responsibility for your own actions."

She reminds us that we, as writers, "are responsible for putting ideas into people's heads at the earliest of ages."

Elizabeth discusses research and the line between being a novelist and not a professional historian, the line between risk and responsibility, and our responsibility as writers and illustrators to our readers, the gatekeepers, in all our personal interactions, and even our responsibility to our imagined characters! This was particularly fascinating, as she talked about how it applies to our main characters, and even our villains, and how they have the task of taking responsibility for what they do as well.

She tells us a great story about researching 6th century coins in the British museum just to get a sense of the time frame she was planning to write about, and how a discovery she made looking at a coin in the museum became a major theme in her Lion Hunters series.

And another about how she could have hired a fact checker, but then she wouldn't have discovered, when she was trying to figure out what the Special Operations Executive called the plastic explosives they used in sabotage operations in Occupied Europe, the detail that plastic explosives smell like marzipan.

She leaves us pondering moral ambiguity and the responsibility we need to take for our actions - and stories.

Jane Yolen: Seven Essential Things You Need To Know About Writing In Verse

Jane Yolen is an icon. She's known as the Hans Christian Anderson of America… Or, as she put it when someone asked her about it in the session, The Hans Jewish Anderson!

Jane Yolen leading her workshop

Jane shared...
advice and poems
poems and wisdom
wisdom and insight
insight and advice
advice and poems
Jane shared... and we were inspired.

She encouraged us to try different forms and spoke about the distinction between writing poetry for little ones, for 1st through 3rd graders and up through Young Adult.

Some moments that shone so brightly they need to be shared here:

"You must always read a poem aloud."

"Words are never too big for children as long as they are the right words."

and

"We poets are code-masters"

Explaining if you want to go further into a poem, you need to encode it (with references, innuendos, deeper meaning, etc…)

She shares tips of where to submit poetry, ideas for collections she won't do (and that maybe attendees might consider) and reads us poems by many other master poets, her own published work, and even some as-yet-unpublished poems she's written that felt like gifts - because we heard them before the rest of the world.

We even got the perfect gift on our chairs:

A poem.

Jane's workshop was essential, honest and inspiring!

Sara Shandler: Developing and Selling a Series

Sara is the senior vice president of editorial at Alloy Entertainment, a creative think tank that develops and produces books, TV series, and movies.

She talked to us about how her company develops series, which she loves because she can stay with a great character for a long time.

Alloy has weekly brainstorming ideas where eight people pitch an idea or two. Every year, 10 to 15 ideas get developed. "There are no bad ideas, there are ideas that are just not right for right now," she says.

It even happens that ideas that have been pitched in the past are repitched and developed years later, because sometimes the timing just isn't right.

When they have a great idea, they partner with writers and develop them. Sara's job combines a bit of writing, agenting, and publishing. She shared a lot of tips with us about how to develop a series; here are three:

Have a clear concept for your series
You have to pitch an idea in a sentence. This is a good litmus test for whether your concept is clear. You have limited time to capture someone's attention, and there are a lot of ideas out there.
 
When Sara sends out queries, she sends out very short pitches, with a paragraph about the concept, a paragraph where we are in the story at its beginning, and a third that summarizes the essentials of the plot, with comparable titles, and information about the author.

She gets query letters that are just too long.

Don't try to think of a series. Think of a great idea.
Almost anything can be a series if you have a few things: amazing characters, ongoing narrative potential, a series obstacle.

Every book has an arc with its own contained story and has to feel satisfying.

"A series-long obstacle is super-important," she said. An ongoing love triangle like the one in Gossip Girls can work. So did the mystery of A's identity in Pretty Little Liars.

Love what you write. Write what you know. Write honestly because everything counts.
The best concept in the world will not be a successful book without amazing execution. It's hugely important.

It doesn't mean your book needs to be you. It's finding something of yourself that you identify with in your character. That will make the character go from generic to special. 

Art Director Lily Malcom: Seven Essentials You Need to Know About Creating Picturebook Art

Lily Malcom is one cool friend, I hear, and you can get to know her a little in this interview she was forced into doing with me.

Today, Lily gives us seven fantastic tips and I'm going to tell you about three of them, so don't say I never gave you nothing. All images in here are books Lily has worked on, except, of course, this first one, Lily is not an immortal vampire art director.

First she gives us this great quote from Sendak:

Caldecott’s work heralds the beginning of the modern picture book. He devised an ingenious juxtaposition of picture and word, a counter point that never happened before. Words are left out — but the picture says it. Pictures are left out — but the words say it. In short, it is the invention of the picture book.

Lily advises approaching the creation of the art and words for a picture book like hopscotch, each step gets you there and back again to develop a fully realized book.

Lily says, "Your art is a crucial part of the picture book. If anything, you could take away the words and still find meaning in the book. It's your job to make that happen by creating images worthy of attention."

Tip #1: Know your audience
In a nutshell, children aren't dumb. They are visual before they are verbal. Create beautiful work with all ages in mind and strive to have it work on all levels, what can you add that will make the reader want to reread that book, making it an instant classic for that family? 

Lucky for us conference attendees Lily is going to help us figure out how you do that, how you tease out those things in each picture book spread.

Tip #2: Mulling
Read the story then put it away. Do this as an author, designer or illustrator. Do it with your covers, your spreads, character designs. Time away from the project brings clarity.

#4 Understand the Page
Trim sets the tone of your book. The Quiet Book is small and therefore intimate, vs. a book about race cars or something like Along A Long Road which has an exaggerated landscape trim because it's all about distance and speeding from one end of the spread's edge to the other.

Lily says, "Understand the edges of the page, they are your friends, they can capture and frame your images for you and set a mood, if there's a lot of space between your character and the page edge things feel expansive, if they are busting into the sides, it can feel claustrophobic.

Layout of the page lets you balance images and text on a page and you can force people to read what you think should be "read" first. You have to think about this from the very beginning of the sketch process for the book. Don't leave it up only to the designer, think these things through.