Catherine Austen
Creative Writing
SCBWI Spring Conference in Ottawa
There are still a few spaces left for Ottawa’s SCBWI Art of Story Conference scheduled for the end of the month. For two days, guest speakers will offer workshops and presentations to everyone interested in writing or illustrating children’s books, from aspiring picture book illustrators to established YA novelists. There’s something for every level of experience.
The conference will offer presentations, workshops, one-on-one critique sessions, first-page critique panels, as well as networking and catching up opportunities. There’s even a steampunk costume party. Check out the full conference schedule on the SCBWI Canada East website.
SCBWI members get a price discount, but you don’t have to be a member to attend. You don’t even have to know that SCBWI stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, an international organization with 22,000 members in 70 regional chapters. All you have to know is that very talented writers, illustrators, editors, agents and art directors will gather in Ottawa at the end of April to talk shop–and you can take part.
If you’ve never been to a writing conference, this might be a good one to try because this year’s conference faculty includes:
✓ Alex Arnold, Associate Editor, Katherine Tegen Books, Harper Collins
✓ Jennie Dunham, agent, Dunham Literary
✓ Grace Kendall, editor, Farrar Strauss Giroux
✓ Whitney Leader-Picone, art director, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Books for Young Readers
✓ Christian Trimmer, senior editor, Simon and Schuster
✓ Helaine Becker, author
✓ Tim Wynne-Jones, author
✓ Ruth Ohi, author and illustrator
So you know you’re going to learn a thing or two. Get the details on the conference faculty at the SCBWI Canada East website.
There are pre-conference feedback opportunities for both writers and illustrators to polish their work in advance of showing it off at the conference itself. It’s too late to sign up for a one-on-one manuscript critique, but it’s not too late to send in a book pitch or first page for critique at the panel session. So get on that. Check out the Conference Details for more info.
Some wonderful conference prep tips were created by the Maryland USA “Team SCBWI” in advance of their own local spring conference. The details are NOT for Ottawa’s Art of Story — don’t follow the directions to Maryland if you’ve signed up for Ottawa — but the general tips and links are useful for anyone heading to their first writing conference. Plus they made this fun meme:
So check out Ottawa’s Art of Story Conference details and sign up.
See you there.
2 Comments on “SCBWI Spring Conference in Ottawa”
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Catherine Austen writes books for kids and teens, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
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Catherine Austen 
Hey, Catherine, big waves from Maryland! Thanks so much for the awesome shout out and I hope you have an amazing conference. The faculty line up looks fantastic!
Happy writing,
Laura
And thank you for the great blog post on all things conference-related. (And the cute meme.) 😊