New England SCBWI
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

Congratulations to the winners of the Illustration Poster Showcase at SCBWI New England’s 2008 conference!

Illustrators were invited to submit their best pieces on the theme "Take Flight," with winners selected by a jury of conference faculty on the basis of their storytelling, character, setting, color, focus, and composition. Entrants were divided into published and unpublished categories and People’s Choice prizes were awarded for entries selected by conference attendees.

Here are the winners and the randomized ballot numbers used for the anonymous judging:

Published 1st Place: Frank W. Dormer (#20)
Published 2nd Place: Kim Jacobs (#1)
Published 3rd Place: Wayne Geehan (#13)
Published Honorable Mention: Robert Squier (#14)

Unpublished 1st Place: Kelly Light (#47)
Unpublished 2nd Place: Brad Garman (#58)
Unpublished 3rd Place: Sam McCullough (#41)
Unpublished Honorable Mention: Kevin Gillespie (#66)

People’s Choice 1st Place: Kelly Light (#47)
People’s Choice 2nd Place: Jennifer Meyer (#5)
People’s Choice 3rd Place: Priscilla Alpaugh Cotter (#62)
People’s Choice Honorable Mention: Laura Foltz-Felice (#55)

SCBWI New England’s April0 2008 conference has reached capacity for the Saturday session, and we cannot accept any more registrations for that day or any walk-in registrations. So many people have already signed up that our main sessions on Saturday will fill the hotel meeting space to the level allowed by fire regulations. We will have to turn away walk-ins if they show up. We apologize that we cannot accommodate everyone.

There is still space in the Sunday session. We’re also planning “Encore” sessions to reprise some of the most popular workshops this fall. We’ll announce the dates and locations of those sessions on this website.

If you have already registered for the conference, or wish to register for Sunday only, please start here to review information about the speakers, workshops, critiques, and other program information.

SCBWI New England congratulates member Sarah Marwil Lamstein for sharing a Sydney Taylor Honor with illustrator Neil Waldman for their picture book Letter on the Wind: A Chanukah Tale, published by Boyd Mills Press.

The Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognizing the best in Jewish children’s literature are given each year by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Each year, the PEN New England Children’s Book Caucus honors emerging writers and writer-illustrators with its Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Winners will present their work to the public at the PEN New England Children’s Book Discovery Evening in April 2008, and winning manuscripts will be read by editors from Candlewick; Houghton Mifflin; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; or Little, Brown.

Entrants must be residents of New England who have not been published in any genre (with the exception of magazines or self-publishing), and neither the submitted work nor another work by the author can be under contract to a book publisher. The Caucus judges are able to accept only one entry per person, in one of the following four categories: picture books, novels, poetry, and nonfiction.

The postmark deadline for submissions is Friday, February 1, 2008. For all the rules on submitting work for the Discovery Award, please visit PEN New England’s webpage.

The Foxboro, MA elementary schools are sponsoring a fundraiser. They are requesting author and illustrators to donate their signed books to be given away in a literacy basket. The event is November 16, 2007. If you would like to donate one of your signed books, please send your book to: Laura Brillant-Giangocarle, 2 Lauren Lane, Foxboro, MA. 02035 Contact #: 617-201-3498

SCBWI New England congratulates Massachusetts member and volunteer Melissa Stewart for winning the SCBWI/Anna Cross Giblin Nonfiction Research Grant, funded by author James Cross Giblin. She is working on a book on body science titled It’s Spit-Acular!: The Secrets of Saliva.

SCBWI New England also congratulates Massachusetts member Susan Meyer for receiving a Letter of Merit in this year’s Work-in-Progress Grants process.

Here is more information about grants and awards available to SCBWI members.

The Foundation for Children’s Books has announced its series of “Conversations with…” noted people from the field of children’s literature for 2007-08.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book has announced its 2007 Massachusetts Book Awards, and SCBWI New England congratulates two members for having their titles designated Honor Books in the category of Children’s Literature:

Sara Pennypacker, for Clementine

Elizabeth Winthrop, for Counting on Grace

TheSCBWI Memory Fund was established in 2005 to remember two SCBWI members, illustrator Anne Barrow and writer Ruth Landers Glass. At our 2006 conference,scholarships in their names were awarded to an illustrator and a writer for our 2007 conference.
This year, SCBWI NE would like to award two scholarship grants for our 2008 Annual Conference, April 12, 2008. To apply for the Ruth Landers Glass Scholarship writers should submit, by e-mail, one picture book manuscript, three poems, or ten pages of a novel or nonfiction work to: Jan Kozlowski, Scholarship Chairperson, at this email address: necritiquegroups@gmail.com
To apply for the Anne Barrow Scholarhip, illustrators should submit up to twelve samples of art 8.5x11, electronically by email, on CD, or by sending clean color copies (NO originals please!) to Margo Lemieux, Scholarhip Chairperson, Box 583, Mansfield, MA 02048 or scbwira_ma@yahoo.com Write Anne Barrow Scholarship on the envelope. No artwork will be returned. Paper copies and mailed CDs must be postmarked by April 25, 2007. Electronic copies of manuscripts and artwork must be received by April 25, 2007

Welcome to the new NESCBWI website, redesigned with updated technology and rushed into service to replace our old ailing web platform. While most of the site works as it ought to, some areas have yet to be completed—most notably the CONNECTIONS speakers directory, which will be added back as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone who provided input and suggestions on how the New England SCBWI website could be improved, and especially to those who pointed out parts of the new site that needed further tweaks and fixes.

Our annual SCBWI New England Conference is a three-day event May 18, 19, and 20, 2007 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua New Hampshire.

Friday, May 18, is our Nuts and Bolts day concentrating on marketing and promotion. The keynote speaker will be Stephen Fraser, literary agent from the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in New York City. The afternoon will also offer two workshops choices and will close with a marketing questions and answer panel with Stephen, Alexandra Penfold from Simon and Shuster, Yolanda LeRoy from Charlesbridge and Theresa Howell from Northland Publishing.

Saturday, May 19 is a broad conference day for emerging and experienced writers and illustrators. We are delighted to have Bruce Coville and Sid Fleischman as keynote speakers, along with workshops, manuscript and portfolio critiques, First Pages, and First Look workshops, door prizes, book sales and signings.

Sunday, May 20 will be a workshop day dedicated to revision and strengthening the craft of writing. Our keynote speaker is Cheryl Zach, author of many young adult and mystery novels. Attendees will have workshop choices both morning and afternoon with books sales through out the day.

SCBWI New England congratulates member (and past RA) Jane Yolen on receiving the Roots of Writing Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Female Writers.

This is the first year the award has been granted. The SF-FFW announced this award in 2005 to honor seven influential female science fiction and fantasy authors: Betty Ballantine, Madeleine L’Engle, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, and Andre Norton.

SCBWI New England congratulates members from the region who have won Magazine Merit Plaques for material they published in children’s magazines last year. In fact, three of the four 2005 plaque winners come from our region:

• Patricia Bridgman for her story “Ghoulies and Ghosties” in Cricket


• Susan Meyer for her poem “Summer is Ending” in Cricket


• Brian Lies for his cover art for Spider