FALL 2024 NETWORKS
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER
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Anyone can attend any Network,
anywhere at anytime!
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Live, in-person and online meetings are free and open to all! Networks focus on craft and industry programming and are our first point of outreach with the wider creative community.
Scroll down to see the complete list
of networks and offerings!
Network Representatives are valued SCBWI-IL volunteers.
Contact them with your questions about attending any of our programs.
Interested in starting a NETWORK group?
Email Cathy Velasco, ARA
All Network times are CST
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FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA | |
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SCBWI-IL Members: You can also join in the fun at our SCBWI Illinois Illustrators Network Group on Facebook – request to join here.
SCBWI member illustrators please make sure you are on the illustrator Google Group! To be added please email Allan Woodrow
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Illinois Illustrators’ Network | |
Chicago Area Illustrator's Network has merged with Midstate Illustrator's Network to create the Illinois Illustrator's Network, now serving all of Illinois. All are welcome to attend the meetings! | | |
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Demons Hate Fresh Air & Do the Verb
A conversation about how to keep going and taking action with our work.
When: Thursday, Oct 10, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Make Gifts
We'll spend our time making a piece of art that can be given as a gift to friends, family, or your readers.
When: Thursday, Nov 14, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Equity & Inclusion Network | | |
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Marketing Madness - Marketing For Creatives
Step into the whirlwind of Marketing Madness, where creativity meets strategic finesse!
When: Wednesday, Oct 16, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Diversity Network Meetings create a space where writers and illustrators who’ve traditionally been left at the margins in children’s publishing can get together. At these meetings we’ll build community, share stories of hurdles and successes, work to dismantle barriers, improve diversity and inclusion in children’s literature and SCBWI-IL, work on our craft and improve our writing and/or illustrating careers.
Our focus on diversity springs from the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement: We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. Because of the breadth of this focus, we will be particularly conscious of the intersectionality of oppressions and identities. Allies are welcome. (An ally is a person who supports, empowers, or stands up for another person or a group of people.)
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If you need additional ADA support such as sign language interpreter or other resources, please email Network Representative Donna Beasley in advance:
Donna Beasley
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Chicago Southside Network | |
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Publishing Sports Graphic Novels
With the phenomenal success of manga like Haikyu!!! And the inspiration of a stunning Summer Olympics still fresh in mind, you might be wondering how to develop and publish your own sports graphic novel or middle grade project. Writer and illustrator Maddie Gallegos will provide insight in a talk and Q&A about her experience creating Match Point, a middle grade graphic novel about racquetball, friendship, and dad-problems, published by First Second.
When: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Time: 5:00 pm
Where: First Aid Comics 1617 E 55th, Chicago, IL 60615 (in Hyde Park)
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Chicago Northside Network | |
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Cloak and Harken First Pages (Rescheduled)
Join us for First Pages with a twist! Participants will submit in advance their first pages which will be read by the moderators. Authors will not be identified (Cloak) and are encouraged to listen (Harken) to how it sounds when someone else reads their story and absorb the feedback from the group. We often know what we are trying to say, but do readers actually understand. This process gives the author a chance to get some unfiltered feedback and impressions that hopefully provides a useful perspective.
When: Tuesday, Nov 12, 2024
Time: 7:00 PM
via Zoom
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Chicago's Southland Network | |
THE SOUTHLAND NETWORK AND NEAR WEST SUBURBAN NETWORK PRESENTS: | | |
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Launch Your Middle Grade Novel
Hear from the Middle Grade Escapades, a group of 16 middle grade debut authors with titles coming in 2025. Pick up tips on submitting, marketing, and sustaining the effort needed to share your novel with the world. Panelists include Sara Shacter, former SCBWI Assistant Regional Advisor for Illinois, Stan Yan, SCBWI Co-Regional Advisor for Rocky Mountain Colorado, and Nicole Hewitt, SCBWI Illinois Network Rep.
For further information, see middlegradeescapades.com
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When: Thursday, Nov 14, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Annual Planning Meeting
Our programming is top notch because planning is a team effort.
Please join us via Zoom for our annual programming meeting to help us plan another stellar year!
If you can't make it, but have a suggestion, please email Ilana at ilana.ostar@gmail.com.
When: Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Far North Suburban Network | |
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Critique Night
If you would like to share your work and receive feedback, please prepare a picture book manuscript or no more than five double spaced pages of a novel excerpt. Bring 8-10 copies.
When: Wednesday, Oct 2, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Cook Library, 413 N Milwaukee, Libertyville 60048
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Critique Night
If you would like to share your work and receive feedback please prepare a picture book manuscript or no more than five double spaced pages of a novel excerpt. Instructions on how to submit will be sent with the meeting reminder.
If you don't already receive our meeting reminders, contact Kim at
kaoclon@gmail.com to be added to the list.
When: Wednesday, Nov 6, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Zoom
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Email Far North Suburban Network Representatives Kim Oclon and Nicole Hewitt for more information:
Kim Oclon
Nicole Hewitt
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Far Northwest Suburban Network | |
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OPEN CRITIQUE
If you would like to share your work and receive feedback, please prepare a picture book manuscript or no more than five double-spaced pages of a novel excerpt.
Instructions on how to submit will be sent with the meeting reminder.
We will meet at 6:30 PM the third Wednesday of the month from January to November at the Café in Barnes and Noble, 1470B E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
Mark your calendar for 6:30 PM on:
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2024
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024
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Open Critique
Bring up to 1,000 words of your picture book, middle grade or young adult to share for feedback and camaraderie.
Mark your calendar for:
Wednesday, Nov 6, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Zoom
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Email Network Rep & Co-Regional Advisor Jennifer Wagh if you are a first-time attendee:
Jennifer Wagh
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Near West Suburban Network | | |
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Hauntings and Horror for Middle Grade and YA
Kids crave scary stories. This session will cover what horror is, tropes of the genre, and how to explore hard topics for younger readers. We’ll read some story excerpts, watch Neil Gaiman read a scary story, and do some of our own writing. Join us if you dare!
When: Thursday, Oct 24, 2024
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: via Zoom
Meeting ID: 828 5425 6032
Passcode: 825093
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THE NEAR WEST SUBURBAN NETWORK AND SOUTHLANDS NETWORK PRESENTS: | |
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Launch Your Middle Grade Novel
Hear from the Middle Grade Escapades, a group of 16 middle grade debut authors with titles coming in 2025. Pick up tips on submitting, marketing, and sustaining the effort needed to share your novel with the world. Panelists include Sara Shacter, former SCBWI Assistant Regional Advisor for Illinois, Stan Yan, SCBWI Co-Regional Advisor for Rocky Mountain Colorado, and Nicole Hewitt, SCBWI Illinois Network Rep.
For further information, see middlegradeescapades.com
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When: Thursday, Nov 14, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Bolingbrook-Naperville Network | | |
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When: Saturday, Oct 26, 2024
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: via Zoom
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Self-Doubt Troll
We can get stuck in old patterns of fear and doubt. This is often a protective mechanism that benefits us in some way. Usually, not in a good way. The good news is, our brains can be rewired and we can get unstuck and start moving forward again.. As a Quantum Alignment System Coach, Sarah Tobias, assists people with rewriting the old stories that are holding them back and instill a new upgraded story.
This mini-Story Lab takes participants through an exercise called Self-Doubt Troll where we look at our life dreams, identify places where we have fear and doubt, and give those doubts a new reframe and an action step to lead us through the doubts and into fulfilling your dreams.
Tobias is a certified Quantum Alignment System Coach through Karen Curry Parker’s program. The Quantum Alignment System is an integrated systematic approach for uncovering and releasing pain (doubt is a form or pain as is fear) that is taking you off course and to bring you closer to living out your highest expression of your authentic self, through assessment and then creating a new higher frequency story.
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CRITIQUE TIME - GET FEEDBACK
In-Person and Zoom!
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The Geneva Network critiques in person at 7:00 PM on the first Wednesday of the month at Barnes & Noble, 102 Commons Drive, Geneva, IL 60134.
Subject to weather.
Mark your calendar for in-person:
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
They also critique via Zoom on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Email Janet or Cheryl for Zoom information.
Mark your calendar for Zoom meetings:
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
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Bring 5 pages (or more if we have time) of your picture book, MG or YA novel WIP and receive some general or specific feedback (depending on your needs).
Mark your calendar for:
Thursday, Oct 10, 2024
Thursday, Nov 14, 2024
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: Zoom
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Galena-Freeport Area Network | |
FREE CRITIQUE OR SHARE TIME | | |
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To accommodate creators who work during the day, Network Rep. Jamie Petras changed the time of the meetings from 7 to 9 PM.
Each participant gets fifteen minutes to share their WIP, query or synopsis and get feedback, or ask questions about the writing process.
Mark your calendar for 7:00 to 9:00 PM:
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Please contact Jamie for the Zoom link.
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Email Network Rep Jamie Petras for more information:
Jamie Petras
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East Central / Champaign-Urbana Network | |
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Calling all Writers for Youth! - First Pages
Calling all children's and young adult writers! Looking for creative community this fall? Need a fresh set of eyes and ears to give feedback on a story? Have you started writing for children or young adults and don't know where to go next?
Bring part of your manuscript - beginning, middle, or end - to share. You will have the opportunity to receive peer feedback in a supportive and constructive environment. Bring up to three pages double-spaced. The time you have to share will be based on the total number of participants.
This program is a great way to meet others who are passionate about writing for youth and to learn about resources to assist you on your writing journey.
This program is presented in collaboration with The Urbana Free Library.
When: Sunday, Nove 3, 2024
Time: 2:00 PM
Where: The Urbana Free Library, 210 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801
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Springfield Area Scribes Network | |
Rhyme Workshop
Despite what some may insist, it’s not a crime to write in rhyme! But it does take effort to master your verse. Join author and Rhyme Doctor Patricia Toht as she shares her book, Together With You, and other wonderful books in rhyme, revealing the key elements that make them shine.
When: Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Time: 6:00 PM
via Zoom
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Critique Night
Springfield Scribes will meet via Zoom to critique 5 pages of MG & YA or entire PB.
When: Tuesday, Nov 5, 2024
Time: 6:00 PM
via Zoom
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The Network meets from 6 to 8 PM on the third Wednesday of the month at Books-A-Million, 6601 Edwardsville Crossing Drive in Edwardsville.
Mark your calendar for:
Wednesday: October 16, 2024
and Wednesday: November 20, 2024
Bring 5 pages to critique! We do in-person critiques but have traditionally asked that writers new to the group wait until their second meeting to submit work for critique. New writers welcome!
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Email Network Juli Caveny for more information:
Juli Caveny
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SCBWI-IL NETWORK POLICIES | |
QUESTIONS about SCBWI-IL Networks?
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