State of the Children's Publishing Market with Deborah Halverson - June 2026

State of the Children's Publishing Market with Deborah Halverson - June 2026

We are a week out to the 2026 SCBWI Virtual Conference! Before you attend, check out this free offering from to SCBWI Members! Hosted by Deborah Halverson, the "State of the Children's Book Market" is a great resource to get a gauge of what is happening in the Kidlit space!

Deborah discusses trends, and how to strategically understand and navigate the children's book world as well as broader market dos and don'ts in this 90 minute video, giving the SCBWI Members a comprehensive overview of the industry and marketplace. Deborah discuss the "influences of AI", the "current landscape of the Middle Grade Market", and "challenges around book banning."

Whether you are new or returning this year to the conference, this is a great tool to help you brush up and tune into the pulse of the publishing industry.

SCBWI Virtual Conference 2026 Scholarships! EXTENDED

Reposting, as the deadline has been EXTENDED!

The countdown to the conference has begin! For those who may need some assistance, SCBWI offers some wonderful scholarships to cover tuition for this year's conference! 

First up, we have the 

BIPOC Scholarship: Summer 2026

For Black, Indigenous, and People of color, this scholarship will reward two winners with tuition to the 2026 SCBWI Virtual Summer Conference. 

Members and Non-members may apply to this scholarship. Submissions for the BIPOC Scholarship is open through July 16, midnight PST.

Visit the BIPOC Scholarship: Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines!

Next, we have the 

Penguin Random House Scholarship (General Scholarship): Summer 2026

This next scholarship generously sponsored by Penguin Random House, grants EIGHT scholarships to SCBWI members who may be experiencing financial hardship with free tuition to the SCBWI conference!

Submissions for the General Conference Scholarship is open until July 16, midnight PST.

Visit the Penguin Random House Scholarship (General Scholarship): Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines! The submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

Last, but not least, we have the 

Student Illustrator Scholarship: Summer 2026

Each year, the SCBWI sponsors conference scholarships for full-time graduate or undergraduate students studying illustration. The winners will receive admission to the Summer Conference and entry in the Juried Portfolio Showcase. 

Many of our SIS winners have gone on to be represented by agents, get illustration work, publish books, and win awards. SCBWI reserves the right not to award the scholarship in any given year.

For this scholarship, you must submit by July 16, midnight PST. 

You must be currently enrolled, or have graduated in the past semester, as a full-time graduate or undergraduate student at an accredited educational institution, and must be at least 18 years old.

Visit the Student Illustrator Scholarship: Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines! The submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

How to Submit to the Scholarships

Submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

1. Click on your MEMBER HOME

2. Click on the AWARDS Icon

3. Scroll down to your desired Scholarship box and click 'submit'

Questions? Please email Sarah Diamond at sarahdiamond@scbwi.org.

Note: In the event that a recipient cannot attend for any reason, SCBWI staff should be notified as soon as possible. The scholarship may, in that event, be awarded to another applicant. The grant is not transferrable and cannot be postponed.

Summer 2026 Virtual Conference: Portfolio Showcase

Summer 2026 Portfolio Showcase

Our annual Summer Portfolio Showcase is a career-launching opportunity for children's book illustrators! This juried showcase is a terrific way to get your illustrations in front of top publishing professionals. This year’s format will be a three-image portfolio, with links to your SCBWI Member Profile Illustrator Gallery. 

For Conference attendees only, you must submit your work by JULY 17. Artwork uploaded after this time, may not be seen by the judges.

Portfolios are judged as a whole, not on any individual image. The judges are looking for children’s book publishing appropriateness, consistency of a strong illustrative “voice” throughout, and fresh and unique styles.

Visit the Portfolio Awards page to learn how to enter.

You must be registered for the conference to participate and you must be a Premium Member. Participation in the showcase is an additional $75. Members can purchase the Portfolio Showcase as a package with the Illustrators Half-Day Intensive for a reduced rate. 

The showcase winners and honor recipients will be announced live on Zoom at the Summer Conference Wrap-Up and Awards on Saturday, August 2, 2025.

Get your art in front of industry professionals at our career-launching online showcase. 

PRIZES

1 Gold Award (1) winner will receive:Free admission to the next Virtual Summer Conference,
Two phone/virtual meetings with art directors/agents who will provide guidance and feedback on your portfolio,
A one year renewal of your SCBWI membership, and
Two images from your portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair.*

1 Silver Award winner will receive:Two phone/virtual meetings with art directors/agents who will provide guidance and feedback on your portfolio,
A one year renewal of your SCBWI membership, and
One image from your portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair.*

2 Bronze Award winners will receive:One phone/virtual meeting with an art director or agent who will provide guidance and feedback on your portfolio.
One image from the winner’s portfolio will be showcased in the SCBWI booth at the 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair.*

Images from the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners’ portfolios will be displayed in a special showcase in the SCBWI booth at the 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair along with their name, website, and country of origin. There will be more than 30,000 people and 1500 exhibitors from 100 countries attend this renowned book fair.

SCBWI Virtual Conference 2026 Scholarships!

The countdown to SCWBI Summer Virtual Conference 2026 starts as we enter July! There is so much in store and we hope you will join us! 

For those who may need some assistance, SCBWI offers some wonderful scholarships to cover tuition for this year's conference! 

First up, we have the 

BIPOC Scholarship: Summer 2026!

For Black, Indigenous, and People of color, this scholarship will reward two winners with tuition to the 2026 SCBWI Virtual Summer Conference. 

Members and Non-members may apply to this scholarship. Submissions for the BIPOC Scholarship is open through July 8, midnight PST.

Visit the BIPOC Scholarship: Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines!

Next, we have the 

Penguin Random House Scholarship (General Scholarship): Summer 2026

This next scholarship generously sponsored by Penguin Random House, grants EIGHT scholarships to SCBWI members who may be experiencing financial hardship with free tuition to the SCBWI conference!

Submissions for the General Conference Scholarship is open until July 8, midnight PST.

Visit the Penguin Random House Scholarship (General Scholarship): Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines! The submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

Last, but not least, we have the 

Student Illustrator Scholarship: Summer 2026

Each year, the SCBWI sponsors conference scholarships for full-time graduate or undergraduate students studying illustration. The winners will receive admission to the Summer Conference and entry in the Juried Portfolio Showcase. 

Many of our SIS winners have gone on to be represented by agents, get illustration work, publish books, and win awards. SCBWI reserves the right not to award the scholarship in any given year.

For this scholarship, you must submit by July 8, midnight PST. 

You must be currently enrolled, or have graduated in the past semester, as a full-time graduate or undergraduate student at an accredited educational institution, and must be at least 18 years old.

Visit the Student Illustrator Scholarship: Summer 2026 for the submission guidelines! The submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

How to Submit to the Scholarships

Submission portal can be found in your Member Profile under the AWARDS tab.

1. Click on your MEMBER HOME

2. Click on the AWARDS Icon

3. Scroll down to your desired Scholarship box and click 'submit'

Questions? Please email Sarah Diamond at sarahdiamond@scbwi.org.

Note: In the event that a recipient cannot attend for any reason, SCBWI staff should be notified as soon as possible. The scholarship may, in that event, be awarded to another applicant. The grant is not transferrable and cannot be postponed.

Awards and Grants: Volemos Grant

Volemos Grant

Submissions open June 1 through June 30.

This award is open to authors and illustrators of Hispanic/Latinx/Ibero-American heritage who are early in their career (1-3 traditionally published books) or not yet traditionally published.

Award info

Sponsored by Illustrator Angela Dominguez and author Meg Medina, this award is open to writers and illustrators of Hispanic/Latinx/Ibero-American heritage. Each year, one writer and one illustrator will be selected. The winners will each receive $500 along with a one-year SCBWI membership, and a coaching session to further their creative career. 

La beca está abierta a escritores de ascendencia latinx e iberoamericana al inicio de su carrera (que tienen de uno a tres libros publicados de manera tradicional, no autopublicados) o que todavía no han publicado de forma tradicional. La persona que gana recibirá $500 así como un año de membresía en la SCBWI y una sesión de tutoría para dar impulso a su carrera.

Congratulations to our 2025 winner, Melanie Wick Singer for "La Canción of Apartment C".


For submission guidelines and eligibility, visit the Awards and Grants page HERE!

Don Freeman Grant: NOW EXTENDED!

GREAT NEWS! The Don Freeman Grant has now been EXTENDED! Submissions are open from NOW until April 10th! Let this be your sign to GO FOR IT! 

 Don Freeman Grant

Award info

To assist illustrators in the completion of a book dummy or portfolio.

Don Freeman was a renowned illustrator and an early supporter of SCBWI. He established this award to enable picture book illustrators to further their understanding, training, and work in the picture book genre. Two grants of $1,000 each will be awarded annually. One grant to a published illustrator and one to a pre-published illustrator. The money may be used in any way to help you complete your project. Acceptable uses include: purchasing art supplies, enrollment in workshops or conferences, courses in advanced illustrating or writing techniques, travel for research or to expose work to publishers/art directors, or childcare. In any given year, the SCBWI reserves the right to withhold either or both of the grants for that year.

Submissions NOW OPEN through APRIL 10th, 2026.

And don't forget to check back at the SCBWI Awards and Grants  page for new and reoccurring opportunities!  

SCBWI at the Bologna Children's Book Fair

SCBWI will return to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2026! 

At the Bologna Children's Book Fair, SCBWI connects with a global audience of publishers, agents, and illustrators. The booth highlights our illustrator awards, features industry sponsors, and is a wonderful place to meet the SCBWI global community. There are so many exhibitions, presenters, books, and people to see. We hope you will join us! 

"The 63rd edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) is set to take place at the Bologna Exhibition Centre from 13 to 16 April 2026: a sixty-three-year commitment to scouting for new talent and promoting the best publishing content for children and young people, with a progressively broader outlook to include more and more sectors of the publishing world and beyond, in order to ensure new business opportunities." - A 2026 BCBF Preview

To discover more about the Bologna Children's Book Fair, visit their website HERE.  

"TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER"

Check out this video of SCBWI at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in 2025!

Each year, one winner receives a ticket to the Bologna Book Fair, travel fare, and a stipend for accommodations where they will have an opportunity to show their portfolios to publishing professionals, display their portfolio at our industry party in Bologna, and attend the prestigious fair.

Congratulations to Masoud Gharehbaghi for being the 2026 Bologna Scholarship Winner! 

Join us in Booth B61, Hall 30! For complete schedule, visit HERE.

Golden Kite Awards 2026

To kick off the 2026 Virtual Winter Conference, on February 6th, SCWBI held the Golden Kite Awards ceremony for the best children's literature published in 2025.

Open to the public, with opportunities to mix and mingle with the Golden Kite finalists and winners in a virtual "afterparty," it was a wonderful celebration of these outstanding book creators and their books! 

Watch the recorded live stream HERE on SCBWI YouTube.

*  *  *

Sid Fleischman Award for Humor

Honoree

Big Changes for Plum! 

by Matt Phelan 

(Greenwillow Books) 

Winner

Never Take Your Rhino on a Plane 

written by KE Lewis and illustrated by Isabel Roxas

(Clarion)

*  *  *

Picture Book Text

Honoree

Fireworks 

written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Catia Chien 

(Clarion)

Winner

We Go Slow 

written by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie and illustrated by Aaron Becker 

(Atheneum)

*  *  *

Picture Book Illustration

Honoree

Fireworks 

written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Catia Chien 

(Clarion)

Winner

When Alexander Graced the Table 

illustrated by Frank Morrison and written by Alexander Smalls and Denene Millner 

(Denene Millner Books)

*  *  *

Nonfiction Text for Younger Readers

Honoree

One Girl's Voice: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land 

written by Vivian Kirkfield illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

(Calkins Creek)

Winner

Some of Us: A Story of Citizenship and the United States 

written by Rajani LaRocca and illustrated by Huy Voun Lee

(Christy Ottaviano Books)

*  *  *

Nonfiction Text for Older Readers

Honoree

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

written by Nicholas Day and illustrated by Yas Imamura 

(Random House Studio)

Winner

White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History

written by Ann Bausum

(Roaring Brook Press)

*  *  *

Middle Grade Fiction

Honoree

Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers

by Angela Dominguez 

(Roaring Brook Press)

Winner

Once for Yes

by Allie Millington 

(Feiwel and Friends)

*  *  *

Illustrated Book for Older Readers

Honoree

Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology

by Angela Hsieh 

(Quill Tree Books)

Winner

Song of a Blackbird

by Maria van Lieshout

(First Second)

*  *  *

Young Adult Fiction

Honoree

Island Creatures 

by Margarita Engle 

(Atheneum)

Winner

Song of a Blackbird

by Maria van Lieshout

(First Second)

Congratulations again to the finalists, honorees, and winners! To purchase books from the SCBWI Golden Kite Award finalists, honors, and winners, visit The SCBWI Bookshop page!