by Joseph Taylor

Editor’s Note: Mentorship proposals are now open to PAL Illustrator members of the Los Angeles Region for the 2023 Mentorship program! Read on to find out more about this rewarding experience and how you can help champion the next mentee!

A few months after starting a new job as editor of Muse magazine, I got the chance to focus on book writing with 2022 SCBWI-L.A. mentee Sarah Gottlieb. I was grateful to SCBWI-L.A. for offering a mentorship focusing on nonfiction for the first time and delighted to get the chance to work with Sarah.

After dabbling in picture book writing, Sarah had trained her attention on writing middle-grade nonfiction. She was working on a science-oriented manuscript titled What We Don’t Know…Yet. The work was broad and ambitious, covering subjects as varied as the beginning of life on Earth to the migration of monarch butterflies. Her mind was abuzz with ideas, and she had managed to snatch them and start getting them down in written form.

They weren’t just random thoughts that might possibly work, but well-researched subjects that had clear appeal to kids, as well as curious adults. They were rich stories that left room for scientists in various fields to speak about their current research, discuss the future, and share a lively anecdote or two.

One example was geochemist John Valley, an American who discovered about a decade ago what is currently the earliest known evidence of Earth’s crust, dating back 4.4 billion years. The scientist brought back from Australia 1,000 pounds of quartzite with zircon crystals in 14 suitcases! Sarah likes to talk and write about such topics. She has a deep curiosity about the natural world and an undeniable gift for finding fascinating science-related stories. Her coming books will no doubt inform and inspire many young readers. 

It was a privilege to work with Sarah. I always looked forward to our regular video calls, and somewhere along the way we became friends. I know how important supportive relationships have been in my career, and I hope Sarah will find some benefit from our working together. 

I’m so thankful to SCBWI-L.A. for introducing us and offering a mentorship. Thanks too to Brenda Scott Royce, who facilitated the mentorship. I’d highly recommend being a mentor to writers and illustrators who might be considering it. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Sarah! 

The SCBWI-L.A. Mentorship program alternates between illustration and writing of a specific category. For 2023, it’s the illustrators’ turn! If you are an SCBWI-L.A. PAL illustrator or author/illustrator interested in mentoring, please see the 2023 Request for Proposals on the region’s website. SCBWI-L.A. mentors design their own mentorship contest guidelines and choose mentors from the applicants who respond.

Proposals will be accepted from October 24, 2022, through 11:59 PM on November 28, 2022. Good luck! 

And if you’d like to learn how to apply as a 2023 mentee (and for more info on other SCBWI-L.A. contests), keep an eye on our contest page. 

For more fantastic content, community, events, and other professional development opportunities, become a member today! Not sure if there is a chapter in your area? Check here.

Joseph Taylor has been the editor of Muse magazine from Cricket Media since August 2021 and is a writer specializing in nonfiction. His work for Cricket magazine has garnered the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Nonfiction and Magazine Merit Honor for Nonfiction and has been noted by the Parents’ Choice Foundation. Recent work includes the feature story “Supermassive” about astrophysicist Andrea Ghez (Muse, May/June 2022) and the educational book Dancing Through Darkness: The Story of Alicia Alonso, illustrated by Jani Orban (Heinemann, 2020). He holds a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.