Matt de la Peña and Christopher Paul Curtis Create SCBWI Scholarships for IPOC Women

Two new scholarships are available for this summer's SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles (and there will be two new scholarship opportunities for #NY20SCBWI as well!)

SCBWI is proud to announce the creation of two new scholarship awards for SCBWI members to attend the international Winter and Summer Conferences. Four scholarships will be given in total: the two scholarships for the Los Angeles Summer Conference are sponsored by author, SCBWI Board member, and Newbery Award recipient Matt de la Peña; the two scholarships for the New York Winter Conference are sponsored by Newbery Award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis. Both of these awards are for Indigenous and People of Color who identify as women.

All four winners of the two awards will receive an all-expense paid trip to one of the two SCBWI conferences, as well as two follow-up mentorship conversations with an industry professional. All expenses, such as travel and hotel, will be included, as well as a $250 stipend for additional costs, such as home or child care.

Eligible SCBWI members for the Summer Conference Matt de la Peña Award can apply from May 1 through June 15. The application form for the Summer Conference can be found here. Applications for the Christopher Paul Curtis Award will be available after October 1.

In sponsoring the scholarship, Matt de la Peña said,

“It is an honor to provide a small boost to hard-working and talented writers and artists in a time when it is such a challenge to make a career in the arts. I’m so thankful that SCBWI has provided me this opportunity to give back.”

Christopher Paul Curtis added this about his scholarship fund:

“My hope is that this scholarship serves as a nudge. A small encouragement to help a writer who is a woman of color get to the point where she listens to the voice that has asked day after day, ‘What are you waiting for? You are a writer. Do something about it.'”

SCBWI conferences provide a gateway for people to advance their careers. With the establishment of these awards, SCBWI hopes to increase the diversity of children’s books by providing four deserving IPOC women authors or illustrators a chance to seek creative and professional fulfillment and find a path to publication.

SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver noted,

“The generosity exemplified by Matt de la Peña and Christopher Paul Curtis in funding these scholarships will change the lives of four new children’s book creators, and help feed the pipeline for getting more diverse books into the hands of all children.”

Illustrate and Write On—and, if you are indigenous and/or a person of color who identifies as a woman, and you're ready to take your career as a writer and/or illustrator of work for children to the next level, apply!
Lee

OUTLAWED: The Naked Truth About Censored Literature For Young People

Friends of the SCBWI, The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature in Fresno, California, are putting on a conference of tremendous interest to our community.

Jennifer Crow, Curator at the center, based at the Henry Madden Library on the campus of California State University, Fresno, wrote to share that from April 10-12, 2015, their conference will include...

Sherman Alexie will kick off the conference with a free presentation the previous evening, April 9th at 7:30 in the Fresno State Satellite Student Union. www.shermanalexiefresnostate.com

Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner, talks about the many challenges her books have received.

Lesléa Newman’s Heather Has Two Mommies set off a national firestorm of controversy in the 1990s.

Matt de la Peña’s book Mexican White Boy was banned in Tucson, Arizona, when the Mexican American Studies programs were suddenly terminated in 2012.

Margarita Engle will discuss her experiences with censorship as a Cuban-American author.

Michael Cart, a young adult author and a reviewer for Booklist speaks about the suppression of LGBTQ literature.

Leonard Marcus, a children’s literature historian, writer, and exhibition curator, will portray a larger perspective to the issue of censorship in children’s literature.

Joan Bertin, is the Executive Director of the National Coalition against Censorship, an organization that legally and financially supports intellectual freedom.

Plus 35 panel presenters from across the United States and abroad who will examine censorship in children's literature from numerous angles.

There will be an exclusive performance by the Fresno State Theatre Dept. of And Then Came Tango, based on the often banned and challenged picture book, And Tango Makes Three. 

You can find out more details at the conference website.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

SCBWI's Podcast Series!

Have you checked out SCBWI Conversations?

One of the benefits of SCBWI membership is access to this great new series of podcast conversations with leaders in the field of children's publishing.

There are four episodes to listen to right now!

The latest epidsode is an interview with New York times best-selling author and two-time National Book Award finalist Laurie Halse Anderson. SCBWI friend Theo Baker and Laurie discuss her writing Picture Books, Historical and Contemporary teen novels - or, as Laurie puts it:

"I like to say there are three halves to my brain."

It's a discussion full of inspiration and insights from Laurie, including:

"I think that the artist is called to write outside of their experience... but you have to do it with humility and respect..."

"Historical fiction is multi-cultural fiction: because even if you are writing about somebody who is of your ethnic and your orientation and your gender and your faith background, if they lived 200 years ago, they're not in your culture."

"The condition of the human heart is timeless."

 and

"The quality of my work improved to the point where people wanted to publish it when I tapped into my own passions."

The three other podcast conversations available as of this posting are:

SCBWI's Executive Director Lin Oliver talking with Publisher, Editor and Picture Book Author Arthur A. Levine

Theo's conversation with Young Adult Author Matt de La Peña

and

Theo's conversation with Chronicle Editor Melissa Manlove

Enjoy listening and learning from SCBWI's Conversations!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee