The 2013 Crystal Kite Winner Profiles: California's San Francisco North & East Bay's Katherine Applegate For "The One and Only Ivan"

The winner of the 2013 Crystal Kite Award for the California/Hawaii region is Katherine Applegate for her middle grade novel, "The One and Only Ivan."

You might notice this book already has a shiny award on the cover - Katherine also won the Newbery Award for it!

I caught up with Katherine at my local SCBWI Los Angeles Writer's Days (where we'd invited her to give the opening keynote) to hear more about her book and what SCBWI means to her...



Katherine's SCBWI chapter is San Francisco North & East Bay. Colette Parrinello and Margaret Speaker Yuan are the co-Regional Advisors for that region, and they write:

SF North & East Bay Region serves members in Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties. The region is vibrant and active with over 540 members, dedicated volunteers, and published authors and illustrators who serve as speakers, mentors, and friends to those new to the industry.

The region hosts over nineteen programs including two Creative Get-away Retreats in Marin County, North Bay meetings in Sebastopol, Beyond the Bay meetings in Walnut Creek, Marin meetings in Corte Madera and Mill Valley, Illustrator meetings in Oakland, two Intensive Workshops, one for writers and one for illustrators, an Annual Fall Conference in Oakland plus the occasional webinar and critique cafe. We also developed and use Critconnect, a web-based critique group/member matching board. We seek members to help organize local schmoozes, especially in Napa county.

Along with Kathleen, our region is honored to have TWO 2013 Golden Kite Award winners also - Joanne Rocklin, Fiction, The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook, and Jeri Chase Ferris, Non-fiction, Noah Webster and His Words. 

To learn more about Katherine and her book, visit The One and Only Ivan website here.

And to find out more about SCBWI San Francisco North & East Bay, visit them online here.