illustrators’ day · quickfire portfolio review the first 25 to register for this free activity...

Intensives: Friday, March 13Conference: Friday-Saturday, March 13-14

Homewood, Alabama

Serving Alabama, Georgia, and The Florida PanhandleSociety of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

Illustrators’ Day

Conference Registration: https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/wik-2020/Hotel Reservations: Aloft Birmingham Soho Square http://bit.ly/2PFXEpP

2 | SCBWI Southern Breeze Spring Conference 2020 Click on addresses to open the website!

CoSt: SCBWI Members: $100.00 Non-Members: $140.00

LUNCH: $9.00 (or you may bring your own or go into Homewood if you prefer)

Illustrators’ Day Locations: All Sessions Held in the Homewood Public Library

8:30 AM-4 PM PoRtFoLIo DISPLAy

8:45-9:00 AM ANNoUNCEMENtS AND FACULty INtRoDUCtIoNS

9:00-10:00 Vanessa Brantley-Newton | Collaging from the EdgeIn this hour-long class each student is asked to bring any kind of collage paper they can find to share. It can be anything from old newspaper, handmade pa-per, magazines, books, etc. It can even be something you designed and printed out. Take the time to find interesting text or textures and colors.

We will have fun sharing papers and adding them to create a one of a kind collage illustration. Everyone is asked to bring your own art supplies, such as scis-sors, glue sticks, crayons, makers, pastel, anything you want. We want you to be comfortable with the supplies that work for you. You can even do this on your iPad if you have one. Come ready to be inspired and stretched to try something new through collaging from the edge.

Supplies needed for this class: Open heart and mind, a collage paper of your choosing, your own art supplies such a scissors, pens, colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, Gouache, acrylics, markers, pastels etc. One sketchbook or paper to apply your collage to.

10:00-11:00 Saho Fujii | Cover ArtA cover is the most important part of the book as that is the first thing that the potential buyer would see when they walk into stores. In this presentation, I will talk about what goes into making covers that stand out from the crowd.

11:00-12:00 PM Saho Fujii | Mentorship Review Little, Brown and Company Art Director, Saho Fujii, will present a picture book cover art workshop to wrap-up our annual Illustration Mentorship. Each participant was tasked to create a book cover based on a classic fable. Saho will review the final work of this year’s mentees in front of the audience allowing everyone to come away with nuggets on how to create eye-catching book covers.

Illustrators’ Day Friday, March 13, 2020

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/wik-2020/

http://bit.ly/2PFXEpP


Click on addresses to open the website! SCBWI Southern Breeze Spring Conference 2020 | 3

12:00-2:00 LUNCH (PRE-PURCHASED BoXES oR oN yoUR oWN IN HoMEWooD)

2:00-3:00 Kait Feldman | Reading ImagesIn this breakout for picture book writers, we’ll examine the ins and outs of effective picture book text, including elements like rhythm, pacing, and pagination. We’ll also dip into the POV of the illustrator to understand how the form of the book im-pacts the reading experience and talk about what’s up with that barrier editors like to put between the author and illustrator.

3:00-4:00 Rubin Pfeffer | Let’s Dissect Some Dummies

Rubin will discuss the value of dummies in the context of the submission and acquisi-tion process for picture books, look at actual dummies as they evolved from thumb-nails, and dig into submissions and how the dummy was used as a key component.

4:00-5:00 LIz CoNRAD SCHoLARSHIP & QUICKFIRE PoRtFoLIo REVIEW





ILLUStRAtoRS’ DAy MENtoRSHIPCoSt: $55.00

Saho Fujii: Picture Book Cover ArtLittle, Brown and Company Art Director, Saho Fujii, will present a picture book cov-er art workshop to wrap-up our annual Illustration Mentorship. Each participant was tasked to create a book cover based on a classic fable. Saho will review the final work of this year’s mentees in front of the audience allowing everyone to come away with nuggets on how to create eye-catching book covers.

QUICKFIRE PoRtFoLIo REVIEW

The first 25 to register for this FREE activity will have their portfolios reviewed by the Illustrators’ Day faculty. Each portfolio will be displayed for the audience, and comments will be made by the faculty. Time for each portfolio is limited to no more than two minutes each. You’ll be surprised how much they cover in two minutes.

PoRtFoLIo DISPLAy

Illustrators who are registered for Illustrators’ Day or Wik’20 may display their port-folios at the Portfolio Show on Friday afternoon. Portfolios should be brought to the conference. Please do not bring original art. For more information about preparing a portfolio, please visit http://sbillustrators.blogspot.com/p/portfolios.html.

LIz CoNRAD SCHoLARSHIP

Open to Southern Breeze SCBWI members only, this scholarship provides funds for one budding illustrator to attend our Illustrators’ Day and Wik’20 Conference. Deadline: January 1, 2020. Judge: Christy T. Ewers, the CAT Agency.For application instructions, visit https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/for-our-illus-trators/liz-conrad-portfolio-scholarship/.

Optional ActivitiesFriday, March 13, 2020



http://sbillustrators.blogspot.com/p/portfolios.html

http://sbillustrators.blogspot.com/p/portfolios.html

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/for-our-illustrators/liz

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/for-our-illustrators/liz



PRIVAtE PoRtFoLIo REVIEWS $45.00 FoRMAL CRItIQUES $45.00 CoNSULtAtIoN WItH A LItERARy AgENt $55.00 one-on-one sessions occur throughout the day on Friday March 15.

NotE: You may have to miss portions of Illustrators’ Day, the Writers Intensive OR conference sessions to participate in consultations and critiques.

Kurestin Armada began her publishing career as an intern with Workman Pub-lishing and spent time as an assistant at The Lotts Agency before joining P.S. Liter-ary. She holds a B.A. in English from Kenyon College, as well as a publishing cer-tificate from Columbia University. Kurestin is based in New York City and spends most of her time in the city’s thriving indie bookstores. She reads widely across genres and has a particular affection for science fiction and fantasy, especially books that recognize and subvert typical tropes of genre fiction.

Erin Clyburn is an Associate Literary Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. She has worked in the book and publishing industries for nearly 15 years, as copy editor and recipe editor for Meredith and general manager and direc-tor of collection development for Turtleback Books. She received her BA in Eng-lish Literature from Mississippi State University and her MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University.Rebecca Angus (remotely) is a Senior Literary Agent, and romance author who has been working in publishing since 2015. She started as an editorial and sub-missions intern at Entangled in 2014, and from there she moved into an intern po-sition at Golden Wheat Literary. After interning on both the publishing side and the agent side, she set her sights on becoming a Literary Agent and found her home at Golden Wheat Literary. Rebecca graduated from Texas A&M University and has since continued her education in Children’s Literacy and a Master’s degree in Education and Literacy. Rebecca is excited to work with new authors and illustrators and is a supporter of diversity and inclusion in publishing. Rubin Pfeffer served as President and Publisher of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Trade, working with world-renowned writers and illustrators of Adult and Chil-dren’s literature including Alice Walker, Umberto Eco, Virginia Hamilton, Wendell Minor, Don and Audrey Wood, Janell Cannon, among many others. As SVP and Chief Creative Officer of Pearson, Inc. Pfeffer coordinated programs between the Penguin imprints and Pearson’s educational products and services. Later, he joined Simon & Schuster as SVP and Publisher of Children’s Books overseeing such fine imprints as S&S BFYR, Atheneum, McElderry Books and the launching of Beach Lane Books. Pfeffer founded Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC, a literary agency focused on children’s content, representing industry luminaries, award-winners, and exciting new talents.

Optional ActivitiesFriday, March 13, 2020






All intensive sessions held at the Homewood Public Library.

8:30 – 9:00 AM RegistRation • coffee • new attendee oRientation |

9:00 – 5:00 PICtURE BooK INtENSIVE 9:00-12:00 Jane yolen and Heidi E. y. Stemple | Picture Book 101, part 1

Jane and Heidi talk about the basics of creating a picture book, from beginning to end. How to elevate your picture book manuscript by looking at the nuts and bolts of the form itself.

Homework: Bring a manuscript that isn’t working and one that is either a poem trying to be a picture book or a text that is trying to be more poetic.


2:00-5:00 PM Jane yolen and Heidi E. y. Stemple | Picture Book 101, part 2How to Make Your Picture Book More Poetic: What is the difference between a poem and a poetic picture book? Can you make your poem into a picture book? And, how do you make your ordinary text more poetic, lyrical, and ready to stand out?

9:00 – 5:00 NoVEL INtENSIVE9:00-11:00 Kurestin Armada | A Look at Attendee First Pages

Tracing three specific elements through example pages, drawing conclusions, and then an exercise where attendees trace those elements in their own work. Pages submitted in advance may be shared as part of the program. Attendees interested in having their pages included should submit their first two pages (500 words) as a word document attached to an email sent no later than midnight, March 2, addressed to [email protected].

11:00-12:00 Kait Feldman | Roundtable Q & AQ & A with the editor, bring your burning questions, or submit them in advance via email sent to [email protected] with “Feldman Questions” as the subject line. There will be no Q&A session at the conference this year, so this is your only chance to get your questions answered by Ms. Feldman.


Optional Writing Intensives ScheduleFriday, March 13, 2020



mailto:[email protected]




2:00-5:00 PM Janice Hardy | Plot, Setting, Scene: Building a Strong Foundation for your Novel Stories might be about characters, but those characters need things to do and places to do them in. Creating a compelling plot with strong conflicts played out in an interesting setting is half of writing a great novel, and the foundation for your entire story. In this workshop, writers will learn how to use internal and exter-nal conflicts to plot, and how to tell if they need a character arc or not. They’ll also learn tricks to bring their setting to life, discover how to use background details to enhance the setting, and show, not tell, their story world. And finally, they’ll dig deep into the mechanics of scene and its troublesome partner, the sequel, and learn how to use this pairing to drive the story and create plots (and novels) readers won’t be able to walk away from. This workshop is packed full of exercises, so bring your laptop and pages.

9:00 – 5:00 PRo INtENSIVE9:00-11:00 Lisa Churchill | Best School Visits Ever!

10 things you can do to ensure students are engaged when you visit.

11:00-12:00 Rubin Pfeffer | Roundtable Q & AAll the burning questions, things that you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask—small and big, specific and general. No question will be turned down. If it matters to you, it probably matters to many. Anything goes!


2:00-3:00 PM Mekisha telfer | Raising the Stakes Working With Editors: How can authors and publishing professionals communi-cate more effectively? What sort of relationship should you expect with an edi-tor? An editor or agent likes your work, but she asks you to make changes in it. Should you do it? Can you push back? What if the editor doesn’t get the cultural content in the book?

3:00-4:00 Mekisha telfer | The Hope of Every ChildA session on writing/illustrating for all children including how to handle charac-ters outside your culture, gender, religion etc.

4:00-5:00 RoUNDtABLE DISCUSSIoN

Optional Writing Intensives ScheduleFriday, March 13, 2020





FREE PUBLIC EVENtS

3:30 – 5:00 R. gregory Christie | Public book-making activity for children and families Co-sponsored by the Homewood Arts Council.

5:00 – 6:30 Public Book Signing and Portfolio Show Homewood Public Library

CoNFERENCE AttENDEES oNLy

7:30 – 9:00 Dessert Party Aloft Hotel Lobby

Cake and gluten-free desserts provided; snacks and drinks available for pur-chase from the hotel

Writing and Illustratingfor KidsFriday March 13





Writing and Illustrating for KidsSaturday March 14, 2020


Early Bird Discount $25.00 for registration prior to January 1, 2020!

UNLESS otHERWISE NotED, ALL SESSIoNS HELD At tHE HoMEWooD PUBLIC LIBRARy.

8:00 – 8:30 AM REgIStRAtIoN, MoCHA & MINgLE, NEW AttENDEE oRIENtAtIoN

8:30 – 9:15 WELCoME AND PItCH PANEL

9:30 – 10:15 BREAKoUt oNE

Rubin Pfeffer and Heather L. Montgomery | A Conversation Between Agent and Writer

Working with your agent to creatively achieve your goals. Candid commentary for tips and advice on how to work with an agent for mutual success and respect. Heather L. Montgomery will join Rubin for this breakout.

Kurestin Armada | Trend Talk Current trends in publishing including YA/Adult crossover, and how to define what your market category might be.

Kara Bietz and Sheri Dillard | Nuts and Bolts The business side of publishing books for young readers, target markets, genre, typical formats, submitting work to editors and agents, traditional publishing and indie publishing.

Vanessa Brantley-Newton | My Journey to Becoming an Illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton shares her journey of being a child born during the Civil Rights movement to becoming an award-winning author-illustrator of multiple children’s books.

Janice Hardy | Finding the Plot in Your Premise What starts out as an exciting premise can sometimes leave us banging our heads against a wall by page fifty, wondering what went wrong. But a little effort before we start writing can mean the difference between stuck and soaring. In this work-shop, you’ll learn techniques to test your premise or idea and see if it really does have what it takes to fill an entire novel. Learn basic plotting tips for both pantsers and outliners, and discover what you need to start that novel and keep yourself on track. No matter what your process is, you’ll learn ways to determine if that premise has the legs to carry the novel in your head. With hands-on exercises, so bring your laptop or pages!





Irene Latham | Writing Tough Subjects Through a survey of children’s books that explore race and racism, this session will 1) identify strategies for creating books on difficult topics that foster empathy and tolerance and 2) offer thoughts for discussion on writing PoC while white.

10:30 – 11:15 BREAKoUt tWo

Jane yolen and Heidi E. y. Stemple | Success Stories Life as a writer, a fireside chat.

Mekisha telfer | From Submission to Acquisition Learn about the business of book acquisitions and what editors are doing behind

the scenes between the moment your manuscript lands in their inbox and when you have an offer in-hand.

Saho Fujii | The Picture Book Illustration Process The process of making picture books from type samples to reviewing proofs, trends in the current market and what we look for in artists at Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

R. gregory Christie | Drawing on the Masters Finding inspiration in the work of great artists.

Javacia Harris-Bowser | How to be Your Own PR Pro How to use blogging, social media, email marketing, and press coverage to build buzz for your books.

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer | Thinking Graphically Writing graphic novels.

11:30 – 12:00 PM NEW BooK LAUNCHES

12:00 – 1:00 PM LUNCH

12:30 – 1:00 PM BooK SIgNINg






1:00 – 1:45 BREAKoUt tHREE

Kait Feldman | Picture Book Writing In this breakout for picture book writers, we’ll examine the ins and outs of effective

picture book text, including elements like rhythm, pacing, and pagination. We’ll also dip into the POV of the illustrator to understand how the form of the book im-pacts the reading experience and talk about what’s up with that barrier editors like to put between the author and illustrator.

your Regional team| Making the Most of Your SCBWI Membership SCBWI has so much to offer if you just know where to look. Find out how your mem-bership can work for you, from getting published in the Bulletin to improving your speaker presentations to artwork opportunities and book promotional tips. You have questions and your Southern Breeze team has all the answers!

Erin Clyburn | Anatomy of a Successful Query This workshop will take you through the do’s and don’ts of crafting a query letter

that will get the attention of literary agents. From creating the perfect elevator pitch for your book to knowing what metadata to include to deciding what to put in your bio, you will learn the basic steps to writing a successful query.

R. gregory Christie | 3 Essential Things Have you ever wondered how certain people are able to make it as an artist?

Examine your individual strengths and challenges through drawing exercises. This hands on creative workshop is a chance to help your art and mind grow as you find your career longevity by focusing on the three dynamics that I believe are needed to “make it as an artist”.

Randi Pink | Bringing Characters to Life Part 1- Create our character. Part 2- Give our character a reason to live. Part 3- Give our character a world worth living in. Part 4- Write! This workshop takes into consideration every single participant’s ideas/perspectives. There are never simi-lar outcomes. In the past, characters created by the class have ranged from a visually impaired teenage girl to a mid-twenties Russian spy.

Janice Hardy | Public Speaking for Writers who Hate Public Speaking For many writers, the thought of speaking to a room full of people makes them

break out into a cold sweat. Unfortunately, being an author means at some point, you’re likely to find yourself in the spotlight. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to choose events that minimize the fear of speaking in public, tips on shifting focus off you, and how to stay “in the public eye” even if you never leave your house.






2:00 – 2:45 BREAKoUt FoUR

Mekisha telfer | Voice: How to Turn up the Dial on Voice in Your Novel How to turn the dial up on voice in your novel and make your characters really

stand out.

Kurestin Armada | Do’s and Don’ts in Communications with Agents Beyond the pitch and the manuscript—the importance of researching agents/agencies wish-lists and websites, following query and submission guidelines, and being prepared for the business side of the business.

Jo Kittinger | Picture Book Pacing A look at picture book structure and layout, and what keeps the pages turning. Vanessa Brantley-Newton | An Artist’s Pep Talk Vanessa Brantley-Newton will take participants through an artistic and meditative

journey to discover what’s blocking your success and give you tools to move you forward on your creative path.

Laynie Bynum | Creating Believable YA Characters Creating characters that are realistic and flawed is hard. Creating believable teenage characters when you are an adult can be even harder. Learn how to craft characters that teens want to read and avoid the age-gap pitfall.

Heidi E. y. Stemple | Finding Your Nonfiction Voice Discover how to find your voice in your nonfiction projects.

3:00 – 4:00 CLoSINg KEyNotE FRoM REtIRINg RA CLAUDIA PEARSoN | Door prizes, and announcements

4:00 – 5:30 FoRMAL CRItIQUES | Homewood Public Library

4:00 –5:30 INFoRMAL CRItIQUES | Hotel Lobby






Additional Information

PItCH PANEL

To participate, indicate your interest when registering. Then, between now and the conference, pre-pare a thirty-second pitch. Participants will be chosen by lottery at the time of the event. We antici-pate more pitchers than available pitch slots, so signing up does not guarantee participation.

BooK LAUNCH

SCBWI members who register prior to February 2 are eligible to register for a three-minute “launch” of their new books, published in the previous twelve months. These book launches will be scheduled during the conference, please see the schedule for more details. Space is limited and will be filled by the first to register for this activity.

PUBLISHED MEMBER BooK SALES/SIgNINg

Southern Breezers are invited to participate in our book sales and signing at our conferences.

Book Sales: SCBWI Members who are not speaking at a conference may designate ONE title to be included in the bookstore, with publisher, date and ISBN by completing the book sales form no later than February 10, 2020. PLEASE NotE: SCBWI Headquarters has opened this optional ac-tivity to all members, and it is no longer limited to PAL members only. Due to space limitations for the bookstore, the number of members who may sell books is limited and the available slots will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis.





Our Faculty

Rebecca Angus is a Senior Liter-ary Agent, and romance author who has been working in publish-ing since 2015. She started as an editorial and submissions intern at

Entangled in 2014, and from there she moved into an intern position at Golden Wheat Liter-ary. After interning on both the publishing side and the agent side, she set her sights on be-coming a Literary Agent and found her home at Golden Wheat Literary.

Rebecca graduated from Texas A&M Univer-sity and has since continued her education in Children’s Literacy and a Master’s degree in Education and Literacy.

Rebecca is excited to work with new authors and illustrators and is a supporter of diversity and inclusion in publishing. She welcomes sub-missions from authors of all backgrounds.

Kurestin Armada began her pub-lishing career as an intern with Workman Publishing and spent time as an assistant at The Lotts Agency before joining P.S. Literary.

She holds a B.A. in English from Kenyon College, as well as a publishing certificate from Colum-bia University. Kurestin is based in New York City and spends most of her time in the city’s thriv-ing indie bookstores. She reads widely across genres and has a particular affection for sci-ence fiction and fantasy, especially books that recognize and subvert typical tropes of genre fiction.

Novel Intensive session: “First Pages” Tracing 3 specific elements through example pages, drawing conclusions, and then an exercise where attendees trace those elements in their own work. Pages submitted in advance may be shared as part of the program. Attend-

ees interested in having their pages included should submit their first two pages (500 words) as a word document attached to an email sent no later than midnight, March 2, addressed to [email protected]

Saturday breakouts: “Trend Talk” Current trends in publishing including YA/Adult crossover, and how to define what your market category might be.

“Do’s and Don’ts in Communications with Agents” Beyond the pitch and the manuscript – the importance of researching agents/agen-cies wish-lists and websites, following query and submission guidelines, and being prepared for the business side of the business.

Kara Bietz grew up in New Eng-land but now resides near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, two kiddos and three dogs. She’s been dreaming up stories as long as she

can remember; sometimes she puts them on paper and sometimes they just live in her head. Her first literary credit was a poem about her Dad, published on Father’s Day in her home-town newspaper when she was 8. Kara is rep-resented by Courtney Miller-Callihan at Hand-spun Literary. Her debut novel, Until I Break, was released in November, 2016 and is a Spirit of Texas Reading List selection for 2018. Her next novel, Sidelined, is scheduled to release from Disney/Hyperion in Fall 2020.

Saturday breakout: “Nuts and Bolts” The busi-ness side of publishing books for young read-ers, target markets, genre, typical formats, sub-mitting work to editors and agents, traditional publishing and indie publishing.






Vanessa Brantley-Newton attend-ed both SVA and FIT of New York, where she studied fashion and chil-dren’s illustration. An artist swathed in retro chic, she loves all things vin-

tage—especially books and clothes from the 40s through the 60s—and it shines through in her designs, which run the gamut of fun and whimsical to stylish and sophisticated. She loves to add unique touches to her work, in-cluding mixed media accents, collage, and hand lettering.

Vanessa was born during the Civil Rights move-ment, and attended school in Newark, NJ. Be-ing part of a diverse, tight-knit community dur-ing such turbulent times, Vanessa learned the importance of acceptance and empower-ment in shaping a young person’s life. When she read Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, it was the first time she saw herself in a children’s book. It was a defining moment in her life and has made her into the artist she is today. As an illus-trator, she includes children of all ethnic back-grounds in her stories and artwork. She wants all children to see their unique experiences re-flected in the books they read, so they can feel the same sense of empowerment and recog-nition she experienced as a young reader.

Vanessa celebrates self-love and acceptance of all cultures through her work, and hopes to inspire young readers to find their own voices. She first learned to express herself as a little girl through song. Growing up in a musical family, Vanessa’s parents taught her how to sing to help overcome her stuttering. Each night the family would gather to make music together, with her mom on piano, her dad on guitar, and Vanessa and her sister, Coy, singing the blues, gospel, spirituals, and jazz. Now when-ever she illustrates, music fills the air and finds

its way into her art. The children she draws can be seen dancing, wiggling, and moving freely across the page in an expression of happiness. Music is a constant celebration, no matter the occasion, and Vanessa hopes her illustrations bring joy to others, with the same magic of a beautiful melody.

Illustrator Day session: “Collaging From The Edge” In this hour long class each student is asked to bring any kind of collage paper they can find to share. It can be anything from old newspaper, handmade paper, magazines, books, etc. It can even be something you de-signed and printed out. Take the time to find interesting text or textures and colors.

We will have fun sharing papers and adding them to create a one of a kind collage illustra-tion. Everyone is asked to bring your own art supplies, such as scissors, glue sticks, crayons, markers, pastel, anything you want. We want you to be comfortable with the supplies that work for you. You can even do this on your iPad if you have one. Come ready to be inspired and stretched to try something new through collaging from the edge.

Supplies needed for this class: Open heart and mind, a collage paper of your choosing, your own art supplies such as scissors, pens, colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, Gouache, acryl-ics, markers, pastels etc. One sketchbook or paper to apply your collage to.

Saturday breakouts: “My Journey to Becoming an Illustrator” Vanessa Brantley-Newton shares her journey of being a child born during the Civil Rights movement to becoming an award-winning author-illustrator of multiple children’s books.

Our Faculty





“An Artist’s Pep Talk” Vanessa Brantley-Newton will take participants through an artistic and meditative journey to discover what’s blocking your success and give you tools to move you forward on your creative path.

Laynie Bynum is a Young Adult au-thor from Birmingham, Alabama. Her full length debut, Adeline’s Aria, released in February 2020 and her short fiction has appeared widely

in various box sets and anthologies. When she isn’t crafting characters who reflect her never-ending wanderlust and love of music, she is the Marketing Manager at Magnolia Press and the Vice President of Communications for the Young Adult chapter of Romance Writers of America.

Saturday breakout: “Creating Believable YA Characters” Creating characters that are re-alistic and flawed is hard. Creating believable teenage characters when you are an adult can be even harder. Learn how to craft char-acters that teens want to read and avoid the age-gap pitfall.

R. gregory Christie is a Multi-Award winning illustrator of more than 60 children’s books. Owner of GAS-ART GIFTS a traveling autographed children’s bookstore, based in

Georgia, offering products and art services to groups.

Saturday breakouts: “Three Essential Things Il-lustrators Should Know” Have you ever won-dered how certain people are able to make it as an artist? This hands on creative workshop is a chance to help your art and mind grow as you find your career longevity by focusing on the three dynamics that I believe are needed to “make it as an artist”. Craftsmanship. Sam-

ples will be shown of the aesthetic of art by artists such as Basquiat and Caravaggio with the goal of appreciation for the “it factor”. Discipline. It’s the focus needed and organiza-tional ideas that are helpful to friends and col-leagues. Luck. Good or bad, luck is the idea that things happen beyond your control after you’ve set some things into place. We’ll also address the statement “The Harder you work...the luckier you are.” Overall the workshop is a means to check or reaffirm one’s thinking. I personally believe that artists fail or succeed based upon their mindset. One way of thinking is to understand that everyone has 4 walls so there’s a potential to sell some art. The lecture will focus on selling to the public while waiting on that book deal.

“Drawing on the Masters” Finding inspiration in the work of great artists.

Lisa Churchill is a retired K-12 school librarian in Birmingham, Alabama, where she created, planned, and prepared successful library programs, which included

author visits. She graduated from the University of Montevallo in 1980, with a bachelors degree in Speech and Theater and a minor in Eng-lish. After graduation she taught speech and coached debate. She enjoyed many hours in libraries teaching and guiding her students to that perfect piece of literature. She witnessed numerous students have that “aha moment,” and the aha moments are what led her to pur-sue a masters in Library Science. In 1984 she became a high school librarian; in 1986 she was an elementary librarian; and in 1988 she moved and remained a middle school librar-ian until retirement in 2010.

Our Faculty





Our Faculty

During her career she won the Carrie C. Rob-inson Award for having “Alabama’s Outstand-ing School Library Program 1989,” which was given at the annual A.E.A. state convention; she was asked twice to present at AASL (Amer-ican Association of School Librarians) national conference, first in 1990 - Baltimore and then in 2005 - Pittsburgh; and she was named a Na-tional Board Certified Library Media Special-ist in 2007. She has received local, state, and national recognition for two of her library pro-grams, “Readers Meet Writers in the Middle” and “Readers and Writers Review.”

Pro Intensive session: “Best School Visits Ever!” 10 things you can do to ensure students are engaged when you visit.

Erin Clyburn is an Associate Literary Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. She has worked in the book and publishing industries for nearly 15 years, as copy editor

and recipe editor for Meredith and general manager and director of collection develop-ment for Turtleback Books. She received her BA in English Literature from Mississippi State University and her MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University.

Saturday breakout: “Anatomy of a Successful Query” This workshop will take you through the do’s and don’ts of crafting a query letter that will get the attention of literary agents. From creating the perfect elevator pitch for your book to knowing what metadata to include to deciding what to put in your bio, you will learn the basic steps to writing a successful query.

Sheri Dillard has been a preschool teacher for several years and now is a preschool librarian. When she was teaching, storytime was her favorite part of the day, so when

she was offered the spot of librarian, she hap-pily took it!

She’s also a writer. Her work has appeared in Highlights, and she’s also written nonfiction for the school and library market. Cowhide-And-Seek is her first book.

Sheri lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Mark, three sons, and a 100-pound puppy named Captain.

Christy Ewers has been rooted in the children’s literature industry since her mother, Chris, started the CAT agency in 1994, and joined as an agent in 2013. Although Christy

is not an artist herself, art has been a huge part of her life and career, even before joining the agency. With a degree in English/Journalism and over a decade of experience in various creative fields, Christy offers a different per-spective to the agency, while maintaining the enthusiasm and love that her mother brings to the industry. She works closely with the entire “family” of artists, spearheading the promotion and deals for CAT Agency illustrators, as well as working alongside the authors in the group to help craft their stories and hone their writing for young readers.

Aside from writing, her interests include running long distances, seaside escapes, very hot cof-fee and pitbulls. Christy is—hilariously enough —a dog person.





Kait Feldman is an Editor at Or-chard Books, an imprint of Scho-lastic, where she is building a list of picture books and graphic novels.

She joined Scholastic in May of 2014 and gained editorial experience assisting Ex-ecutive Editors Tracy Mack, Michael di Capua, Cheryl Klein, and Andrea Davis Pinkney. A few of the titles she assisted on include Newbery Honor-winner Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, New York Times-bestseller The Marvels by Brian Sel-znick, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard: The Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, with new il-lustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger. She also worked for Arthur A. Levine Books from November 2018 until its dissolvement in April 2019.

Kait is a founding member of People of Color in Publishing, the founder and chair of the Scho-lastic Diversity Committee, and a member of the Diverse BookFinder Advisory Council.

She was born in Orlando, Florida; raised in Los Angeles, California; and now resides in a hoarder’s paradise in Brooklyn, New York, sur-rounded by books.

Follow her on Twitter @kaitfeldmann.

Illustrators Day session: “Reading Images: Com-ponents of Visual Storytelling” In this breakout geared towards illustrators and author-illustra-tors, we will cover some exciting ways to use art as a narrative form. Come hungry to feast your eyes on lots of picture books and graphic novels that play with components like page-turn, gutter, white space, paneling, perspec-tive, color, and more!

Novel Intensive session: “Q & A Roundtable” A casual, candid conversation with editor Kait Feldman

Saturday Breakout: “Picture Book Writing” In this breakout for picture book writers, we’ll exam-ine the ins and outs of effective picture book text, including elements like rhythm, pacing, and pagination. We’ll also dip into the POV of the illustrator to understand how the form of the book impacts the reading experience and talk about what’s up with that barrier editors like to put between the author and illustrator.

Saho Fujii is a senior art director at Little, Brown Books for Young Read-ers. She has designed a wide range of books including picture books, board books, activity and novelty

books, middle grade and young adult novels. She currently oversees the LBYR’s picture book list. She has worked with many award-winning illustrators including Jerry Pinkney, Javaka Step-toe, Sophie Blackall, Molly Idle, Bryan Collier, Mordicai Gerstein and John Rocco. She lives in New York City. http://sahofujii.squarespace.com.

Illustrators Day sessions: “Cover Design/Illustra-tion in depth” A cover is the most important part of the book as that is the first thing that the potential buyer would see when they walk into stores. In this presentation, I will talk about what goes into making covers that stand out from the crowd.

“Mentorship Review: Book Cover Projects” Little, Brown and Company Art Director, Saho Fujii, will present a picture book cover art work-shop to wrap-up our annual Illustration Mentor-ship. Each participant was tasked to create a book cover based on a classic fable. Saho will review the final work of this year’s mentees in front of the audience allowing everyone to come away with nuggets on how to create eye-catching book covers.

Our Faculty



http://sahofujii.squarespace.com

http://sahofujii.squarespace.com



Saturday breakout: “The Picture Book Process” In this presentation, I will go over the process of making picture books from type samples to reviewing proofs. I will also talk about trends in the current market and what we look for in art-ists at Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

Javacia Harris-Bowser is the found-er of See Jane Write, an award-winning website and community for women who write and blog. She is also a prolific blogger and

freelance writer with nearly 20 years of journal-ism experience. A proud graduate of the jour-nalism programs at the University of Alabama and the University of California at Berkeley, Bowser has written for a number of local and national media outlets including USA Today, Good Grit magazine, Birmingham magazine, The Birmingham Times, B-Metro magazine, and Birmingham’s NPR affiliate WBHM 90.3 FM. For 10 years Javacia also worked as an educa-tor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts before leaving the classroom to pursue writing and entrepreneurship full-time.

Saturday breakout: “How to Be Your Own PR Pro” How to use blogging, social media, email marketing, and press coverage to build buzz for your books.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She also

writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name J.T. Hardy. When she’s not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Nov-

el: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series

Novel Intensive session: “Plot, Setting, Scene: Building a Strong Foundation for Your Novel” Stories might be about characters, but those characters need things to do and places to do them in. Creating a compelling plot with strong conflicts played out in an interesting setting is half of writing a great novel, and the founda-tion for your entire story. In this workshop, writ-ers will learn how to use internal and external conflicts to plot, and how to tell if they need a character arc or not. They’ll also learn tricks to bring their setting to life, discover how to use background details to enhance the setting, and show, not tell, their story world. And finally, they’ll dig deep into the mechanics of scene and its troublesome partner, the sequel, and learn how to use this pairing to drive the story and create plots (and novels) readers won’t be able to walk away from. This workshop is packed full of exercises, so bring your laptop and pages.

Saturday break outs: “Finding the Plot in Your Premise” What starts out as an exciting prem-ise can sometimes leave us banging our heads against a wall by page fifty, wondering what went wrong. But a little effort before we start writing can mean the difference between stuck and soaring. In this workshop, you’ll learn techniques to test your premise or idea and see if it really does have what it takes to fill an entire novel. Learn basic plotting tips for both pants-ers and outliners, and discover what you need to start that novel and keep yourself on track. No matter what your process is, you’ll learn ways to determine if that premise has the legs to carry the novel in your head. With hands-on exercises, so bring your laptop or pages!





“Public Speaking for Writers who Hate Pub-lic Speaking” For many writers, the thought of speaking to a room full of people makes them break out into a cold sweat. Unfortunately, be-ing an author means at some point, you’re like-ly to find yourself in the spotlight. In this work-shop, you’ll learn how to choose events that minimize the fear of speaking in public, tips on shifting focus off you, and how to stay “in the public eye” even if you never want to leave your house.

Jo S. Kittinger has authored more than 35 books for children—fiction and non-fiction, picture books, easy readers, and middle grade nonfic-tion. Most notably her picture book

The House on Dirty-Third Street (Peachtree Pub-lishers) was honored with a Christopher Award and an ALA Social Justice Literature Award. Another picture book, Rosa’s Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights (Calkins Creek Books), received a Crystal Kite award from the SCBWI. Jo loves ad-venture and being out in nature!

Saturday breakout: “Picture Book Pacing”

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer is an award-winning author of books for children and adults. His published books include The Outsider, The Origami Master, Octopus Escapes!

and Broken Beaks. His first all-ages graphic nov-el, The Singing Rock & Other Brand-New Fairy Tales, was published in 2019 by First Second/Macmillan. Visit his web site at www.Nathani-elLachenmeyer.com to learn more about him.

Saturday breakout: “Thinking Graphically” Writ-ing graphic novels

Irene Latham lives on a lake in ru-ral Alabama. Winner of the 2016 ILA Lee Bennett Hopkins Promis-ing Poet Award, she is the author of hundreds of poems and nearly

twenty current and forthcoming poetry, fic-tion and picture books from publishers includ-ing Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Le-rner, Boyds Mills Kane, and Charlesbridge. Her books have been recognized on state lists and honored by NEA, ALA, NCTE, SIBA, Bank Street College and other organizations.

Saturday breakout: “Writing About Race and Racism” Through a survey of children’s books that explore race and racism, this session will 1) identify strategies for creating books on dif-ficult topics that foster empathy and tolerance and 2) offer thoughts for discussion on writing PoC while white.

Heather L. Montgomery writes for kids who are wild about ani-mals. Her subjects range from snail tongues to snake lungs. An award-winning educator, Heather uses

yuck appeal to engage young minds. She has a B.S. in biology and an M.S. in environmental education.

Since joining SCBWI, Heather has published 15 nonfiction books. Recent titles include: Bugs Don’t Hug: Six-Legged Parents and Their Kids (Charlesbridge), Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis Under the Waves (Millbrook Press), and Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill (Bloomsbury), which is an NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a VOYA Nonfiction Honor Award Winner.

Heather credits her knowledge of the industry to SCBWI. She has been a Local Liaison, the As-



www.NathanielLachenmeyer.com

www.NathanielLachenmeyer.com



sistant Regional Advisor, and (currently) the PAL coordinator. During volunteer duties for Southern Breeze, Heather met the distinguished agent Ru-bin Pfeffer who now represents her work. Learn more at www.HeatherLMontgomery.com.

Saturday breakout (with Rubin Pfeffer): “A Con-versation between Agent and Writer” Work-ing with your agent to creatively achieve your goals. Candid commentary for tips and advice on how to work with an agent for mutual suc-cess and respect. Heather L. Montgomery will join Rubin for this breakout.

Rubin Pfeffer served as President and Publisher of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Trade, working with world-renowned writers and illus-trators of Adult and Children’s lit-

erature including Alice Walker, Umberto Eco, Virginia Hamilton, Wendell Minor, Don and Audrey Wood, Janell Cannon, among many others. As SVP and Chief Creative Officer of Pearson, Inc. Pfeffer coordinated programs between the Penguin imprints and Pearson’s educational products and services. Later, he joined Simon & Schuster as SVP and Publisher of Children’s Books overseeing such fine im-prints as S&S BFYR, Atheneum, McElderry Books and the launching of Beach Lane Books.

Pfeffer founded Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC, a literary agency focused on children’s con-tent, representing industry luminaries, award-winners, and exciting new talents. Among his distinguished clients are Susan Cooper, Patri-cia MacLachlan, Ekua Holmes, Carole Boston Weatherford, Steven Kellogg, Marion Dane Bauer, Arree Chung, Elana K. Arnold, and oth-ers whose many books are in the publishing pipeline as we speak. He is based in the Boston area and speaks about the publishing industry

and role of literary agents in Children’s Books Publishing at such venues as Simmons College Masters Programs, the Highlights Foundation, Syracuse University, Fashion Institute of Tech-nology, and the SCBWI.

Illustrators Day session: “Let’s Dissect some Dummies” Rubin will discuss the value of dum-mies in the context of the submission and ac-quisition process for picture books, look at ac-tual dummies as they evolved from thumbnails, and dig into submissions and how the dummy was used as a key component.

Pro Intensive session: “Q&A with Rubin” No question will be turned down. Anything goes!

Saturday breakout (with Heather L. Montgom-ery): “A Conversation between Agent and Writer” Working with your agent to creatively achieve your goals. Candid commentary for tips and advice on howto work with an agent for mutual success and respect. Heather L. Montgomery will join Rubin for this breakout.

Randi Pink is a young adult novel-ist. Pink’s debut novel, Into White, dares to discuss race, one of Amer-ica’s most difficult subjects, without tiptoeing around common stereo-

types and biases. Pink’s second novel, Girls Like Us, weaves a heart-wrenching narrative through multiple perspectives that examines life before Roe v. Wade. Girls Like Us hit shelves fall 2019. Randi Pink leverages her unique ex-perience with her southern roots when she writes. She lives in Birmingham with her hus-band, daughter and rescue pups.

Saturday breakout: “Bringing Characters to Life” Part 1- Create our character. Part 2- Give our character a reason to live. Part 3- Give our character a world worth living in. Part 4- Write!



www.HeatherLMontgomery.com



This workshop takes into consideration every single participant’s ideas/perspectives. There are never similar outcomes. In the past, char-acters created by the class have ranged from a visually impaired teenage girl to a mid-twen-ties Russian spy.

Heidi E. y. Stemple didn’t want to be a writer when she grew up. In fact, after she graduated from col-lege, she became a probation offi-cer in Florida. It wasn’t until she was

28 years old that she gave in and joined her mother, author Jane Yolen and both her broth-ers in the family business. Since then, she has published 20 books as well as numerous short stories and poems, mostly for children. Heidi lives on an old tobacco farm in western Massa-chusetts where she writes, reads, cooks, sews, and once a year, calls and counts owls for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

Picture Book Intensive (Taught with Jane Yo-len): “Picture Book 101” Morning: Jane and Heidi talk about the basics of creating a pic-ture book, from beginning to end. How to el-evate your picture book manuscript by looking at the nuts and bolts of the form itself.

Afternoon: How to Make Your Picture Book More Poetic: What is the difference between a poem and a poetic picture book? Can you make your poem into a picture book? And, how do you make your ordinary text more po-etic, lyrical, and ready to stand out?

Homework: Bring a manuscript that isn’t working and one that is either a poem trying to be a pic-ture book or a text that is trying to be more poetic.

Saturday breakout: “Finding Your Nonfiction Voice”

Mekisha telfer is an associate edi-tor at Roaring Brook Press, where she is building a list of picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels. She got her start in publish-

ing in 2014 as an editorial assistant with Simon and Schuster BFYR/Salaam reads and has also worked briefly at Glasstown Entertainment. Some titles she’s had the privilege of working on include the New York Times bestselling Emer-gency Contact by Mark H. K. Choi, I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest, Born to Fly by Steve Sheinkin, and We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade. Mekisha is committed to supporting un-represented voices and is always on the hunt for character-driven stories with a mix of humor and heart.

Pro Intensive sessions: “Raising the Stakes” Working With Editors: How can authors and publishing professionals communicate more ef-fectively? What sort of relationship should you expect with an editor? An editor or agent likes your work, but she asks you to make changes in it. Should you do it? Can you push back? What if the editor doesn’t get the cultural content in the book?

“The Hope of Every Child” A session on writing/illustrating for all children including how to han-dle characters outside your culture, gender, re-ligion etc.

Saturday breakouts: “From Submission to Acqui-sition” Learn about the business of book acqui-sitions and what editors are doing behind the scenes between the moment your manuscript lands in their inbox and when you have an offer in-hand.

“Voice” How to turn the dial up on voice in your novel and make your characters really stand out.





Jane yolen, often called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America,” celebrated her 365th published book in 2018. Her works, which range from very young rhymed

picture books to novels for adults and every genre in between, have won an assortment of awards including two Nebulas, a World Fanta-sy Award, a Caldecott, the Golden Kite, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, the Jewish Book Award, the Kerlan Award, and the Catholic Library’s Regina Medal, as well as six honorary doctorates from six different col-leges and universities. She lives in Massachu-setts in the winter and Scotland in the summer. She writes every day. One of her awards set her good coat on fire.

Picture Book Intensive (taught with Heidi E.y. Stemple): “Picture Book 101” Morning: Jane and Heidi talk about the basics of creating a picture book, from beginning to end. How to elevate your picture book manuscript by look-ing at the nuts and bolts of the form itself.

Afternoon: How to Make Your Picture Book More Poetic: What is the difference between a poem and a poetic picture book? Can you make your poem into a picture book? And, how do you make your ordinary text more po-etic, lyrical, and ready to stand out?

Homework: Bring a manuscript that isn’t work-ing and one that is either a poem trying to be a picture book or a text that is trying to be more poetic.

Saturday break out: “Success Stories – life as a writer, a fireside chat” (with Heidi Stemple).





Critiques

FoRMAL CRItIQUES Cost: $45.00Submission Deadline: February 10, 2020 Southern Breeze offers three formal critique options: Face-to-Face Manuscript Critique, Face-to-Face Portfolio Review, Written-Only Manuscript Critique. Formal critiques are conducted by conference faculty (editors, agents, authors, illustrators) or other industry professionals who may or may not be in attendance. All written-only critiques are conducted by editors or agents. Face-to-Face critiques consist of a 12-minute meeting with the critiquer. Critiquers are asked to use the SCBWI Gold Form to ensure thorough critiques. Critiques are only available to registered conference attendees.

Formatting:• Use 12 point Arial or Times New Roman font, double-spaced.• Set margins at 1” or larger.• The header on the first page should include your name, address, telephone, and email.• The title and byline should appear a third way down the first page with text below.• Questions? Read “From Keyboard to Printed Page” found at www.scbwi.org/online-resources/

just-getting-started/.

Length:• Picture book or short story: submit entire manuscript• Poetry: submit up to six related poems (no more than ten pages)• Longer works: submit up to 10 pages, including a one-page synopsis•Picture book dummies must be submitted as jpg or pdf files with two pages per image (double

spreads - first and last pages can be single images)•Graphic novels with images should be submitted as jpg or pdf files, with maximum of 10 pdf im-

ages. Images can be double spreads.

Submission: • Portfolios for review should be brought to the conference.• Manuscript should be in a printable format (.doc, .docx, .rtf, or ,pdf).• Submit a manuscript for face-to-face critique to [email protected]. For a written-

only critique, send to [email protected]. Subject line of email should be: “Formal Cri-tique - [TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT] - Please indicate in the email the genre of your manuscript. Please send file as an attachment.

INFoRMAL CRItIQUES Cost: FREEConference attendees will gather in small groups to critique each others’ work. There is no charge for this activity. During online registration, indicate which genre you will be bringing. On the day of the conference, bring at least five copies of your work, no more than 2500 words please.



https://www.scbwi.org/online-resources/just-getting-started/

https://www.scbwi.org/online-resources/just-getting-started/





Registration

SCBWI SoUtHERN BREEzE WIK’20 CoNFERENCE tUItIoNConference Workshops

SCBWI Members: $180.00 Non-Members: $215.00

EARLy BIRD DISCoUNt $25.00 off for registration prior to January 1, 2020After March 10:

SCBWI Members: $205.00 Non-Members: $240.00

optional Writing Intensive (registration for Wik’20 is not required)SCBWI Members: $100.00 Non-Members: $140.00

Illustrators’ Day only (registration for Wik’20 is not required) SCBWI Members: $100.00 Non-Members: $140.00

Lunch: $9.00 (or you may bring your own if you prefer)

optional Consultations with an Agent (registration for ID or SM is required) Cost: $55.00

optional Formal Critiques: $45.00Submission Deadline: February 10Informal Critiques: FREE!!!

Book Sales & Book Launches: FREE!!! (Limited registration due to space and time requirements)to Register, go to https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/wik-2020/.





Locations and Hotel Information

CoNFERENCE HotEL

Aloft Birmingham Soho Square1903 29th Avenue SouthHomewood, AL 35209Phone: (866) 238-4218Special Conference Block Room Rates: $139.00/night. Two Queen Beds or One King Bed, in-cludes wi-fi.

Note: Reserve early! The conference block may fill quickly. http://bit.ly/2PFXEpP

EVENt LoCAtIoNS

WIK and Illustrator Day Sessions located at:

the Homewood Public Library, 1721 Oxmoor Rd., Birmingham, AL 35209

Aloft Birmingham Soho Square (Friday Dessert Party and Saturday Informal Critiques)

FoR MoRE INFoRMAtIoN

Registration: [email protected]

Cover and interior illustrations by David SanAngelohttp://www.davidsanangelo.com/



150.00/night



http://www.davidsanangelo.com

illustrators’ day · quickfire portfolio review the first 25 to register for this free activity...

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