July Announcements from SCBWI SF/South
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In This Issue
(Scroll down for details!)

  • Illustrator Day 2019: Registration goes live July 11th at 9am
  • Webinars: Announcing dates and topics
  • Artist Dates: Mark your calendars. Our first Artist Date is July 27th!
  • Picture Book Surgery: July 19, 7-9 pm at Booksmith in SF
  • Volunteer Opportunities: Seeking community builders... we mean you!
  • Planning Ahead: Mark your calendars for Asilomar 2020
  • Meet the Team: Get to know us, your regional team.
Illustrator Day - October 12, 2019
Registration Goes Live on July 11, 2019 at 9am PST

Date: Saturday, October 12, 2019 from 8am - 4pm

Location: Fort Mason Fire House in San Francisco

Join superstars in the children's book world for a full day of ideas and learning about industry and craft. You won't want to miss it!

Our Keynote Speakers, author/Illustrator  Alexandra Boiger and Art Director  Ellice Lee will be joined by an all-star faculty, including: 

Author/illustrator Susan Gal
Author/illustrator Charlotte Cheng
Author/illustrator/educator Julie Downing
Agent Minju Chang
Art director Melissa Greenberg

Alexandra and Ellice will speak about their collaboration process on the #1 New York Times bestseller picture book series  She Persisted . And, as always, we'll have presentations, critiques, a portfolio showcase, and plenty of opportunity to connect with faculty and peers.

Click through to our registration page for more details on the full faculty, agenda, and exciting extras.

We hope to see you there!
** Exclusively for SF/South Members! **
Free Webinar Series
We are thrilled to kick-off our new Webinar Series, free for SF South Members. We've lined up an incredible program for 2019/2020, and while we are still adding to it, we are ready to share some details with you.

Our first webinar will take place August 23, 2019, at 12:00 PST when writer, teacher, and app developer, Lisa Papademetriou presents "Tips for Plotting Your Story."

Lisa is the author of A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic (a South Asia Book Award Highly Commended Title), the New York Times-bestselling novel Middle School: My Brother is a Big, Fat Liar and Homeroom Diaries (both with James Patterson), the Confectionately Yours series (over 800,000 books in print), and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her books have appeared on many prestigious lists, including Bank Street Best Books of the Year, the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Texas Lone Star Reading List and have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese. She is the founder of the cloud-based writing tool,  Bookflow.pub  and teaches workshops across the United States on the subjects of writing and creative courage. 

Sign-up details will be available in our August Newsletter, so stay tuned.

You can also look forward to these additional webinars:

In October, Agent DongWon Song, with Morhaim Literary, will present, "How to Pitch."

In November, Kathi Appelt, Mina Witteman, Marilyn Hilton, Erin Dealey, and Christy Hale will talk about their experiences mentoring members of our region.

In January, local writer and teacher Anne-Marie Strohman will present, "Reading for Craft."

In February, local writer and ukulele player Tim McCanna will present, "Rhyming in Picture Books: Dos and Don'ts."

We hope you'll join us for these exciting events.
New! Join us for an Artist Date!
Date: July 27, 2019 from 10am to 1:30pm

Location: Mitchell Park Library in Palo Alto

Gather with us to write, build friendships, and create community. 

SF South's first Artist Date is scheduled for July 27th from 10:00 am- 1:30 pm at the Mitchell Park Library in Palo Alto.

This is an informal opportunity to meet up with like-minded writers and artists to work in each other’s company. There is no programming. Just show up with your current project and look for us at the library’s work tables (we’ll put signs on the tables where we are gathered.) 

Bring your own lunch, or plan to buy lunch at the convenient cafe on campus.
No registration required.

We hope to see you there!
Picture Book Surgery
Date: July 19, 2019 from 7pm to 9pm

Location: Booksmith in San Francisco

Members Charlotte Cheng and Diana Toledano will be holding their monthly Picture Book Surgery meeting at the Booksmith in SF on  Friday, July 19th from 7-9 pm . The topic will be  Diversity and Inclusion in Picture Books.

This is a member hosted event, not an official SCBWI event. If you are a member and would like to spread the word about a FREE event, please contact us!
We're Seeking Volunteers
Want to help build your SF South community?
Check out our volunteer opportunities!

Our region is built by volunteers. Every one of our events is planned by someone who cares about building our community of writers and illustrators.

Your regional team could use your help in the following areas:

Retreat Coordinator - responsible for helping plan our annual writer's retreat
Illustrator Critique Coordinator - responsible for connecting illustrators to critique partners
Bookstore Liaison - responsible for planning events at your local bookstore
PAL Network Liaison - responsible for outreach and programming for our published author members

If you are interested in any of these opportunities: please contact Danielle Sunshine at sfsouth-ra@scbwi.org
Planning Ahead
Golden Gate Conference 2020 at Asilomar

Save the date! March 13-15, 2020

Thank you to those of you who attended the conference this past spring, and to everyone who filled out our feedback survey. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive! We are glad so many of you got so much out of the weekend.

Thank you also to those of you who helped us come up with ideas for how we can build on our successful format to make the conference even better.

Our goals for next year include:
  • Go deeper into craft, balancing the needs of beginning and more advanced writers.
  • Continue to provide a robust Illustrator Track.
  • Provide more opportunity early in the conference to help people connect, meet one another, and create community.
  • Ease the pace where we can, providing more transition time between events, more breaks, and options for writing time.

Believe it or not, we are already well underway designing the agenda and inviting our faculty. Watch for updates as we get ready to announce our theme and keynote speakers.

Registration, as usual, is expected to go live in October. Date TBD.

Stay tuned for more updates between now and then!

Meet Your Regional Team!
We are here to help! Get to know us by reading our bios. Feel free to reach out to any one of us with questions, feedback, or suggestions.

Danielle Sunshine
Regional Advisor
Danielle has been a member of SCBWI since 2007. She was SF/South’s Membership Chair and Bookstore Liason from 2015-2017. Danielle writes middle grade fiction and picture books. She is also a freelance editor for writers of children's books and an ESL instructor at Canada College. She is the founder of the MGLunchbreak, a monthly gathering of middle grade writers who read and discuss craft. Danielle holds a BA in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Isabella Kung
Illustrator Coordinator
Illustrator/Author Isabella Kung has been a member of SCBWI since 2011. Isabella was the Silver Medalist in the Illustration West 56th Competition, a finalist in Spectrum 25, featured on the cover of SCBWI Bulletin and winner of Portfolio Best in Show at the SCBWI 2016 Golden Gate Conference. Isabella has illustrated for Candlewick Press, Committee for Children, P&H Publishing, 826 Valencia, and Ladybug Magazine. Her debut Author/Illustrator picture book, NoFuzzball! , comes out in Summer 2020 by Scholastic. Isabella has taught illustration and painting at Academy of Art University for over six years and is in the process of building her own online class. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two furry cats.

Kristi Wright
Co-Assistant Regional Advisor
Kristi Wright has been a member of SCBWI since 2009. She writes picture books, middle grade and young adult. In the past, she also wrote historical romances and was a Golden Heart finalist three times and winner of the Royal Ascot twice. Her middle grade futuristic series is  The Basker Twins in the 31st Century . As a children’s book author, she has the awesome opportunity to visit numerous elementary schools year after year where she helps students to write humorous adventure stories with a strong points of view and tons of sensory detail. She is the Mentorship Coordinator for the Society of Young Inklings. Through that organization, she takes great pleasure in mentoring young authors. Before focusing on a writer’s life, Kristi worked in high tech, early on as a programmer and most recently in public relations.

Laurel Holman
Co-Assistant Regional Advisor
Laurel, a middle grade writer, has been a member of SCBWI since 2016. This is her first year as Co-ARA. In addition to her work with SCBWI, Laurel volunteers her time to organize a craft-focused book club for writers, and she organizes the local middle school book fair. Her background is in marketing in the software and consumer packaged goods industries, and she currently works as an executive coach, helping senior leaders shift the trajectory of their careers. Laurel holds degrees in Communications and Psychology from Stanford University, and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She lives in Menlo Park with her husband, two children, and a black cat.

We're looking for your ideas for how we can make this newsletter more fun and more useful. Send us your suggestions! Contact Laurel at sfsouth-ara@sbcwi.org.