... to one of our Swiss region members, Laurie Theurer, on winning a Crystal Kite Award, for her book, Swisstory. It was announced in the latest Insight email from SCBWI.

The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world. You can see the other winners here.
(Note: the website has yet to be updated at time of posting this blog post, please check back in a few days for the full list of 2020 winners for books published in 2019.)
(Update 9 June 2020: The full list of 2020 winners are now published on the SCBWI website.)

Sandra Yoong-Chia

Is the cooler weather a motivation for you to sit more often at your desk and create your next award-winning story or illustration? It is for me, because i am a warm-weather person.

Speaking of awards, did you received your Swiss region newsletter at the beginning of September? In it is a section about awards.
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SCBWI as an organisation does its best to encourage children's writers and illustrators, and one of the ways it does this is to give out awards. Did you know that there are over 20 different awards and grants you could receive from SCBWI?
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i thought i highlight some of them here. These are the ones with upcoming datelines in November and December this year.
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1) Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Grant - dateline November 1, 2019. This grant was created to honor the contribution of mid-list authors and aims to help raise awareness about their current works-in-progress. See details here.

2) Golden Kite Award (2nd wave submission) - dateline July 1 - November 15, 2019 (for books published in the second half of 2019). This award recognises excellence in children’s literature in six categories: Young Reader and Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction for Younger Readers, Nonfiction for Older Readers, Picture Book Text, and Picture Book Illustration. It is the only children’s literary award judged by a jury of peers. See details here.

3) Emerging Voices Award - dateline September 15 - November 15, 2019. This award is for any writer or writer/illustrator from an ethnic and/or cultural background that is traditionally under-represented in children’s literature in America. (Including but not limited to: American Indian, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander). See details here.

4) Sid Fleischman Humor Award - dateline November 30, 2019. Given with the Golden Kite Awards, the Sid Fleischman Humor Award is an award for authors whose work exemplifies the excellence of writing in the genre of humor. See details here.

5) Magazine Merit Award - postmarked on or before December 15, 2019. This award is  presented annually for original magazine work for young people; one in each category of fiction, nonfiction, illustration, and poetry, to honor SCBWI members’ outstanding original magazine work published during that year. See details here.

6) Spark Award - dateline November 15 - December 15, 2019. This award is an annual award that recognises excellence in a children’s book published through a non-traditional publishing route. See details here.

You can view the complete list of awards and grants from SCBWI here.

Do check out these awards and grants. They are most definitely worth your time and effort to enter for them.
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All the best! Now get working on that masterpiece!
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Sandra Yoong-Chia

The Undiscovered Voices contest is open to members of SCBWI's United Kingdom and European chapters.

The goal of the contest, which is judged by a panel of industry professionals, is to showcase unagented, unpublished writers and illustrators.

We are especially proud that three members of the Swiss SCBWI region are among those longlisted.

Congratulations to: 
Monika Baum (illustrator)
Katie Hayoz (writer)
Mireille Lachausse (illustrator)

You can see the entire UV 2018 longlist here.

The names of the shortlisted writers and illustrators, whose work will be published in the Undiscovered Voices 2018 Anthology, will be announced in January 2018.
​Elisabeth Norton