Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, is one of the largest existing organizations for writers and illustrators.
It is the only professional organization specifically for those individuals writing and illustrating for children and young adults in the fields of children’s literature, magazines, film, television, and multimedia.
12 x 12
12 x 12 is a year-long writing challenge where members aim to write 12 complete picture book drafts, one per month, for each 12 months of the year.
12 x 12 offers motivation, support, and accountability to help you write more (LOTS more!) than you would on your own.
KIDLIT 411
KidLit411 is a veritable treasure trove of information for anyone looking to write a children's book.
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The KidLit411 Facebook group is great for getting critique partners and sharing your work with a supportive community.
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
AWP provides community, opportunities, ideas, news, and advocacy for writers and teachers of writing.
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This is a great resource for information on workshops, grants, mentorships, and career advice too!
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As a member of AWP, you also have free access to apply for their annual mentorship program, which encompasses all categories of writing.
Ongoing Mentorship Program
Author Mentor Match pairs unagented, aspiring writers with mentors to help them with their manuscripts and guide them through the publishing process.
AMM focuses on building lasting relationships. Mentors will help writers revise their manuscript before querying, give advice and tips on agents, and support through the process.
Ongoing Mentorship Program
Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine for an agent showcase. The mentor also helps edit their mentee’s pitch for the contest and their query letter for submitting to agents.
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One Year Mentorship Program
A mentorship program to support writers early in their career by pairing them with an experienced children’s author or illustrator.
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Many of the Mentorship Program’s finalists and mentees have gone on to sign with agents and get book deals. As a WNDB 2021 mentee, I'm excited to feature this here!
Three Month Mentorship Program
AWP's mentorship program, Writer to Writer, matches emerging writers and published authors for a three-month series of modules on topics such as craft, revision, publishing, and the writing life.
Mentors volunteer their time and receive a free one-year AWP membership. Writer to Writer is free of charge to mentees.
Children's Book Academy
As part of their drive for inclusivity in the field of children's literature, the CBA offers scholarships to people who identify as LBGQTI, having a disability, being a person of color, or being low income. In addition, Scholarships on offer include:
Yuyi Morales
​Writing Picture Books Scholarship
Rafael Lopez
​Illustrating Children's Books Scholarship
Andrea Davis Pinkney
​Middle Grade Mastery Scholarship
12 x 12 Tuition Scholarships
12 x 12 offers a number of tuition scholarships based on financial need
and diversity.
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Access to 12 x 12 is a fantastic opportunity to get inspiration and more from established authors, editors and agents, while finding a community of authors along different stages of their writing careers.
Scholarship for African Writers
The Miles Morland Foundation writing scholarships for African writers offers a grant of ₤18,000 to selected applicants to allow them to take a year off to write a book.
The awards are based on submissions which include a book proposal and an excerpt of published writing.
Goethe Institut Workshops
While not technically scholarships, the Goethe Institut runs several workshops and residencies for artists and authors. They have run workshops for aspiring Young Adult authors and picture book authors as well.
I personally have benefited from their Storymakers workshop, which was facilitated by the fantastic and prolific author/illustrator Ute Krause and the amazing journalist/author/illustrator Abdulkareem Baba Aminu