The New York Library Association had it’s annual conference and trade show in Syracuse, NY Nov. 7th and 8th, 2024. SCBWI Eastern NY was there promoting our authors and our READ LOCAL program.

Thank you to the authors and illustrators who manned our booth!

Our Falling Leaves Masterclass Retreat is a car ride or train ride away in the Adirondack Mountains. And along with a lake and a forest full of trees, we have a limit of 35 attendees with four editors and one agent as faculty.

The weekend includes a one-on-one critique with one faculty member, masterclass-level workshops, peer critiques, free time for kicking back in an Adirondack chair with a warm drink, taking a lakeside hike, or reading by the fireplace in the lodge. It has been over 15 years since our first Eastern NY SCBWI Falling Leaves master class retreat and we're still going strong!

Class description: Nonfiction picture books are often an easier sell. There are so many potential markets, and facts are less subjective than fiction. But Emotional Nonfiction takes nonfiction to a whole new level, playing with format and weaving the strategies of fiction into facts to help young readers fall in love with our world. If you can make someone care, they will follow you anywhere.

This is Part 2 in the Aspiring Writer Series.

Q: “Is there anything you offer for aspiring writers that don’t know where to begin? It’s always been a dream of mine to write a children’s book. I have sat down to start writing and I feel like I don’t know what I am doing. I’d be grateful for any help.”

A: Getting started is so overwhelming! But here’s the best place to start.

Author/Illustrator, Sarah Perkins (our very own Illustrator Coordinator) has published her first picture book!

Sarah will share her art and her reflections on the publishing process. She is going to walk us through the journey from the spark of the idea to holding her published book in her hand–finding an agent, submitting her story, working with an editor and art director, revisions, revisions, and more revisions!

Good Publishing News! Eastern NY SCBWI member, author Diana Murray sold her picture book Firehouse Rainbow to Golden Books!

Eastern Up! writer and illustrator, Amy Guglielmo is the creative director for the revived Reading Rainbow!

Nonfiction Is Cool, and Our Kids Know It

Eastern Up! writer, Amanda Baker writes about the changes in kidlit nonfiction in Scientific America and it was featured in Publisher’s Weekly! Read the article here.

Publishing deals, awards, book cover reveals—all the good publishing news from SCBWI Eastern NY!

Here is the Eastern NY SCBWI Good Publishing News from March. Three new deals announced for our writers and illustrators!

Hello SCBWI NY: Eastern Upstate members and friends. Or as we’ve begun to affectionally call our community of writers and illustrators—Eastern Up! As you may have noticed over the last several months, the combination of Pandemic life and having a relatively new Regional Team has allowed us to move and grow in new, sometimes unexpected, and hopefully wonderful ways. As the world is trying to find a new normal, here at Eastern Up! we are doing our best to make our corner of the SCBWI the best it can be.