As part of the 2nd Annual Albany Chidren’s Books Festival on May 15 (where I will be appearing), there will be a picture book writing contests for tweens and teens. (No, I won’t be one of the judges.) Here are the specifics from the organizers. Good luck to all:

THE ALBANY CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL
PICTURE BOOK WRITING CONTEST

The Albany Children’s Book Festival is sponsoring a picture book writing contest for students in grades 4 through 12. Students will be judged in one of two categories:  Tweens (grades 4-8) and Teens (grades 9-12). Our goal is to promote writing skills and the creative process in young adults.  There is no fee for participation, but we do have some rules and guidelines:

What to submit:
*An original, unpublished story with original, student created illustrations.
*Illustrations should compliment the storyline.
*The story and its illustrations must be created by one individual; joint efforts will not be accepted.
*Submit the entry in picture book format sequentially arranged.
*The picture book should be bound in some way (stapled, spiral bound,in a report cover, etc.).
*A book cover with title and illustration should be bound to the text; do not add authors name.
*A cover sheet listing the entrant’s name, grade, school, school address, and teacher’s name should be attached.
*No specific length is required.
*Handwritten entries must be legible; all typewritten entries must be double spaced.
*Entries may be fiction or non-fiction; accuracy will be weighed when judging non-fiction material.
*All submissions will be displayed at the book festival.
*Submitted entries may be picked up at 3:00 p.m. on the day…

I blog about my workspaces at Write Up Our Alley. You can read about it here.

On Saturday April 25, I gave a workshop at the New England SCBWI conference in Nashua, New Hampshire titled “Dealing With White Default.” In the workshop I discussed ways in which to bring to life characters from many different cultures. It’s not complicated: make each character real. That isn’t to say that it’s easy — making any fictional character come to life is work. Hard work. But it’s entirely doable.

At some point I’ll summarize my talk and post it. In the meantime, I gave a hand-out during the presentation which I’ve uploaded (with minor changes, plus links) onto my website. You can see it here.

The conference, by the way, was terrific! The folks at NESCBWI know how to put on a great event.