**Note: The SCBWI-L.A. Mentorship is a six-month program that alternates between various categories of writing and illustrating. In this post, our 2024 winner, illustrator Kristin Marine, shares her experience with the program and last year’s mentor, Jaime Zollars. The 2025 mentor will be announced at the end of the post.**

by Kristin Marine

I applied for the SCBWI-L.A. Mentorship Contest in 2024. I had a portfolio on my website, a few written stories, and a book dummy. I felt pretty good when I reached out to illustration agencies in search of representation, but I heard more than once that I wasn’t quite “ready.” I wasn’t sure what ready looked like, and I hoped a mentor might help me figure it out.

When I learned that I had been chosen for the mentorship with Jaime Zollars, I was over the moon. I had attended an SCBWI Writers Day event back in 2023, and Jaime was a speaker. Her speech about her journey as an author and illustrator relit the flame that had been dampened by all the rejections I’d been receiving. Our winding career paths and love of creatures and all things bizarre made me feel she was going to be a great mentor for me.

Immediately, Jaime helped me sort through some technical skills I was struggling with. We discussed how to be prepared to show my work, and she helped me think about how to build a network in the industry, which can be hard, particularly in the beginning. We dug in on what agents are looking for. I shared my previous approach, and she helped me see what I was missing—and how to fill those gaps. She showed me how important it is to find agents that might be a fit with my particular style.

Great mentors like Jaime share the knowledge they’ve gathered on their path and help you apply it to your own journey. I’m so grateful to Jaime for her guidance and to SCBWI for the opportunity. I strongly recommend entering this contest for any illustrator or author out there trying to find their way in the world of children’s books.

2025 Mentorship Contest 

SCBWI-Los Angeles is excited to announce that middle grade author Sherry Shahan has been selected as our 2025 mentor. In this role, Sherry will guide one middle grade author in the early stages of their career for a period of six months. 

Sherry Shahan is a teal-haired septuagenarian who writes in a small California beach town. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, taught a creative writing course for UCLA Extension for 10 years, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry and Short Fiction, Best American Short Stories, and Best of the Net Anthology. She has 40 children’s books to her credit—fiction and nonfiction, preschool through YA. Sherry is best known for her middle grade adventure/survival novels FROZEN STIFF (Random House, Yearling), ICE ISLAND (Random House, Yearling), and DEATH MOUNTAIN (Peachtree). She’s thrilled to be selected as the Los Angeles 2025 Mentor.

“I’m interested in assisting a hardworking, devoted writer on their journey of telling a compelling story in the most effective way,” Sherry says. “I’m so excited to read the middle-grade entries!”

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by! For more information about the mentorship and instructions on how to apply, visit the SCBWI-L.A. Mentor Contest web page.

Entries will be accepted from March 12 through April 23, 2025.

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Kristine Marine (left, with Jaime Zollars) is an illustrator of kids stories and comics. She lives in the greater Los Angeles area. Kristin can often be found in her garden or along the shoreline recording and illustrating various stories from the creatures she encounters. She has an MFA in painting, and through the years has made use of her creative skills in professional settings, through work as a graphic designer and product illustrator at brands like Patagonia.