SCBWIers Worldwide!

I talk a lot on this blog about the writing organizations I belong to, specifically the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). It's an international organization that has created a community of writers and illustrators committed to creating works for children.


They have conferences all over the world and I've blogged about the ones I've been to in New York and Bologna, Italy. And SCBWI has regional chapters like the Canada West Region that puts on local conferences, professional development, and networking. Check out the link for upcoming local events. 


I meet some members of the The British Isles SCBWI when I was in London and Bologna in 2010. I loved their energy and commitment, and heard the story of how they built the region up to deliver the professional development opportunities they have, and how many went from being aspiring to published writers.


SCBWI BI just had their annual conference and by all accounts it was a huge success.


Check out the blog Notes from the Slush Pile for a round up of the events at the conference. This blog post also links to many other member blogs who write about their experience at the conference.


Candy Gourlay, who recently did a guest blog post for me, won the coveted Crystal Kite Prize for Europe for her young adult novel Tall Story. The Crystal Kite Prize is voted on by peers. Candy also won the Outstanding Contribution Prize for all her efforts in growing SCBWI and nurturing the members (also, she scores high on the awesome scale!).


Here's her acceptance speech for the Crystal Kite Prize where she talks about the long road to publication, the year since publication and the challenges of living a creative life while living a creative life (if you know what I mean - you will after reading her speech). Plus she confirmed that writers can write in their sweat pants and not bother washing their hair which is great comfort to most of us writers.    


Oh, yeah, they have a cake each year that represents some of the member's books that have been published that year.





Now that's literary nourishment!