Tag Archives: contest

Can a Mentor Be the Boost You Need to Succeed?

19 Wednesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Contests & Grants, Los Angeles, Mentorship Contest, Tri-Regional News

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As the 2025 mentorship contest deadline approaches, SCBWI-L.A.’s Contest Coordinator checks in with a few past winners who’ve gone on to score major successes…

by Brenda Scott Royce

2020 Mentee Edward Underhill’s adult debut is in bookstores now

A few months ago, I was perusing the new release display in my local bookshop when a title called The In-Between Bookstore caught my eye. (I’m a sucker for any book about books, libraries, or bookstores!) I stared at the author’s name for a few moments before it struck me why it seemed so familiar—Edward Underhill won SCBWI-L.A.’s mentorship contest in 2020. The manuscript he worked on with mentor Nicole Maggi, Always the Almost, was published in 2023 by Wednesday Books, an imprint of Macmillan. Ed summarized the mentorship for Kite Tales in 2021, concluding: “Nicole’s mentorship gave me gifts I didn’t even know I needed, and I would not have gotten here without it.”

The In-Between Bookstore is Ed’s adult debut, and it’s garnering rave reviews (and a cover blurb by mega-bestseller Jodi Picoult!). Seeing it on the bookshelves made me wonder about other past mentorship contest winners. How many are enjoying similar achievements—and did their mentorship experience contribute to their success? I reached out to a few to find out. 

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SCBWI-L.A.’s Mentorship Contest Is Now Open!

12 Wednesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Contests & Grants, Los Angeles, Mentorship Contest, Tri-Regional News

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**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.

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You Are a Writer (And Here’s Why You Should Apply for the Sue Alexander Grant!) 

10 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Contests & Grants, Los Angeles, SAG, Tri-Regional News, Writers' Retreat

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by Julia Edwards

The 2024 Sue Alexander Grant contest opens this week—April 13. The winner receives a guaranteed spot and free tuition to the Working Writers Retreat (to be held at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, September 27–29, 2024). We asked last year’s Sue Alexander Grant recipient, Julia Edwards, to talk about her experience at the 2023 retreat.

Julia Edwards (at right) with the writers from her Retreat crit group.

“I am a writer.” 

SCBWI-Los Angeles Co-Regional Advisor Nutschell Windsor encouraged the attendees gathered at the 2023 Working Writers Retreat to write down these four words. I penned the phrase quickly, not realizing at first how much I needed to write it. How much I needed to think it. After a several-year hiatus from the retreat due to COVID and an aversion to online anything, I was finally shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow writers. Colleagues. Friends.

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Treasure Chest: March 2024

06 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in Central Coast, Contests & Grants, Industry Conferences, Los Angeles, SoCal, Treasure Chest, Tri-Regional News, Writers Days

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Events, Opportunities, and Resources happening now and coming soon for the
Tri-Regions and beyond

Burst into creative bloom this Saturday at Bud to Blossom. How to Grow Stories and Nurture Creative Inspiration, the in-person SCBWI-Los Angeles 2024 Writers Day conference being held at the Skirball Cultural Center on March 9, 2024. An all-star faculty—including speakers Deborah Halverson, Henry Lien, Ariel Richardson, Liz Garton Scanlon, and Karol Ruth Silverstein—will nourish your creative spirit and encourage your stories to sprout and grow. Enjoy keynotes, breakouts, an afternoon book signing, and a patio lunch by the famous lily pond. Event schedule and faculty profiles here. Online registration is now closed. Walk-ins welcome (cash or check only).

March 9 is the date for the 2024 SCBWI-Los Angeles Writers Day.
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Treasure Chest: February 2024

07 Wednesday Feb 2024

Posted by in Central Coast, Contests & Grants, Industry Conferences, Los Angeles, SoCal, Treasure Chest, Tri-Regional News, Writers Days

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Events, Opportunities, and Resources happening now and coming soon for the Tri-Regions and beyond

Tri-Region Members: Last call! Remember to share your Great News and Toot Your Horn! announcements no later than Friday, February 9, 2024, to appear in this month’s columns. All items submitted after February 9 will run next quarter. 

The C. Harrington Scholarship is accepting applications through February 17, 2024. Established in memory of Claudia Harrington—mentor, author, SCBWI-L.A. regional advisor, and friend—the scholarship awards one SCBWI-L.A. member free tuition to either the LA Region Writers Day (see March 9, below) or an Illustrator event of the current year, and includes a free editor critique or portfolio review. Claudia was the recipient of the Sue Alexander Service Award in 2015. Read more about Claudia and this special scholarship here.

SCBWI-Los Angeles members may apply for the scholarship honoring the memory of volunteer, mentor, and author Claudia Harrington.
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Treasure Chest: January 2024

03 Wednesday Jan 2024

Posted by in Central Coast, Contests & Grants, Industry Conferences, Los Angeles, SoCal, Tri-Regional News, Writers Days

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Events, Opportunities, and Resources happening now and coming soon for the Tri-Regions and beyond

Event registration opening soon! From Bud to Blossom: How to Grow Stories and Nurture Creative Inspiration. Join SCBWI Los Angeles for the in-person “Bud to Blossom” Writers Day Conference, March 9, 2024, at the Skirball Cultural Center. An amazing faculty will nourish your creative spirit and encourage your stories to sprout and grow. Already have a flourishing manuscript? Then add an Agent Pitch to your event day! Enter the manuscript contest (see below) for a chance to win a free event plus a free 10-page manuscript review. Come meet fellow SCBWI Los Angeles and Tri-Region members and enjoy a delicious al fresco lunch beside the famous lily pond. See you there! 

*Deadline extended!* Submissions are open now, and January 28, 2024, is the new deadline to enter your work into the SCBWI-L.A. Writers Day Contest. If you plan to attend the March 9, 2024, event (see Save the Date above), you can enter the contest now for the opportunity to receive a free written critique from a member of the event faculty PLUS free tuition to next year’s Writers Day (or equivalent event). The contest is open to all who register for Writers Day, and there’s no additional fee to enter. To quote Vincent X. Kirsch, one of last year’s contest winners, “You can do this!”

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3rd Annual #KTIllustrates Contest: Call for Entries

05 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by in #KTIllustrates, Contests & Grants

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Calling all Illustrators! Kite Tales invites you, our illustrator members, to participate in our annual #KTIllustrates Contest: we give you a prompt and you show us your best take. The illustration can be in any medium, for any age range, and any genre. It can be conceptual or literal, spot or spread, as long as it keeps the idea of the prompt as it would apply to children’s books. (If you’re inspired to create a cover illustration instead, go for it!) All are welcome, as long as the final entry follows the guidelines posted on the entry page.

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The Sue Alexander Grant is Open for Submissions!

30 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Contests & Grants, SAG, Writers' Retreat

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by Brenda Scott Royce 

The 2021 Sue Alexander Grant contest opens today, offering one SCBWI-L.A. writer a guaranteed spot and free tuition to the Working Writers Retreat (to be held virtually this year on October 9). Winning a golden ticket to this always popular event is not the only reason to enter. Since COVID-19 sidelined last year’s event, 2020 winner Nicholas Ponticello will be among the attendees at the 2021 virtual retreat. But winning the prestigious prize has already impacted his career:

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#KTIllustrates 2021 Contest Winner: Sienna Kim

03 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by in #KTIllustrates, Illustrator's Perspective

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In SCBWI-L.A.’s first #KTIllustrates contest, illustrators were given a few lines from an old nursery rhyme to inspire them: “If your heels are nimble and light, you may get there by candle-light.” The entries could be in any form (spot, spread or cover design) and in any medium. The winner receives a gift certificate to ArtSupply Warehouse and is featured on the Los Angeles Region’s social media pages.

Congratulations goes to Sienna Youngsun Kim, our winner of the #KTIllustrates 2021 contest! Read on to learn more about Sienna and to view her wonderful work, filled with whimsy and delight.

Sienna Kim’s Winning Illustration

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#KTIllustrates Deadline Extended: Let’s Stir Up The Imagination!

09 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by in #KTIllustrates, Tips and Tools

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So much has been happening in the world in the last few months that it might feel like we haven’t yet caught a break. A day of rest might seem like a luxury of the past or we might be struggling to generate ideas with the constant stream of worries swirling around in our heads.

With this in mind, we’re going to give ourselves some time to rest and extend the deadline for our #KTIllustrates contest to February 5, 2021. 

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