The San Diego Regional Team is working to create another amazing lineup of authors, illustrators, agents and editors. In order to keep everyone safe during the COVID pandemic, September 2022 – May 2023 San Diego events will be held in Zoom meetings. Additionally, chapter meetings will be recorded and available to all registered attendees and Season Ticket holders for thirty days after each event.
We are hoping to start back with In-person meetings that will also be Live-streamed beginning with our September 2023 Chapter Meeting. More info about this soon.
Chapter Meetings Schedule 2022–23 (Pacific Time):
2-2:20 p.m. Announcements and Member News
2:20-3:45 p.m. Craft Talk by Guest Speaker
3:45-4:00 p.m. Questions
IMPORTANT Information: This coming season our meetings will vary from the 1st to the 3rd Saturday of the month, please take note each month. Those who register and pay on-line will receive the Zoom invite by email no later than the Friday evening before the meeting. Registration for each event closes the Friday evening prior to that meeting so we are assured of getting the Zoom invite to attendees on time. SCBWI members please verify your correct email is on record with SCBWI to facilitate your receiving your invite. Any issues please contact us at sandiego@scbwi.org or sandiego-ara@scbwi.org.
Meetings are open to SCBWI members and nonmembers – Chapter meeting cost: $10 for SCBWI members, $15 for nonmembers. Season Tickets – $60 for SCBWI Int’l Members, and $90 for Non-Members and are available for purchase from August 13th through December 9th. Season Tickets provide admission to all chapter meetings, discounted pricing for intensives, conferences and workshops and access to chapter meeting recording whether they were able to attend or not. If you are a SCBWI member facing financial hardship due to Covid, please contact us at sandiego@scbwi.org. We will be offering a free meeting, one time per person.
We will not be asking everyone to fill out the beginning-of-the-year form this season so please be sure SCBWI has your correct email as that is the email that will show when you register and so it will be what we use to send the Zoom Invites, notifications and reminders. Non-members email will show as the email you use when you register for an event. Add our chapter ARA’s email to your contacts list to avoid meeting links being sent to your Spam or Junk file, sandiego-ara@scbwi.org.
San Diego SCBWI Refund Policy: For all events: Refunds will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Any refund will be minus PayPal fees and any other expenses (Ex: Critiques already submitted to critiquer.) No refunds will be given 2 weeks before the event. For more on our refund policy click here.
2022-20123 Season Topics for Chapter Meetings from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (the first 20 – 30 minutes is member news and announcements, speaker will begin their presentation between 2:20 and 2:30 p.m., Q&A 3:45 to 4:00 p.m.
To register for a particular meeting: Go to My Region page, find the meeting (month and day) you’re interested in on the calendar and then click on that date. or to purchase a Season Ticket you can click here.
September 24th – (4th Saturday) – From Submission to Shelves: How Publishing Works and How You Can Prep for the Process Now with editor Sarah Rockett, Cherry Lane/Sleeping Bear Press
October 8th – (2nd Saturday) – Creating an Authentic Voice with Kayla Cichello, Agent with Upstart Crow Literary
November 19th – (3rd Saturday – Veterans Day is the 11th) – Giving Characters Life and Voice with Charlotte Wenger, Literary Agent, Prospect Agency
December 10th – (2nd Saturday) – Lessons Learned – new authors and illustrators with Tracy Badua, Patricia Morris Buckley, Tamika Burgess and Noa Nimrodi
January 21, 2023 – (3rd Saturday – Conflicts with another event) – Middle Grade Minded with Jessica Kim, Author
February 4th (1st Saturday – NY Conference is the 10th) – Diversity Panel with Adriana Domínguez, senior agent at Aevitas Creative Management, Jacqui Lipton, agent at The Tobias Literary Agency and Moderator Patricia Buckley, author/RAE.
March 11th – (2nd Saturday) – Picture Book Process, with Saho Fujii, Art Director of Picture Books, Little Brown Books for Young Readers
April 15th – (3rd Saturday – Easter is the 9th) – Think Like an Agent: How to Analyze Feedback, Responses, and Other Books to Make Your Book Stronger with Agent Kaitlyn Sanchez
Conferences
MayFest Conference is on May 20, 2023 (3rd Saturday) – Workshops, speakers and critique opportunities TBA
If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a children’s book, but don’t know quite where to begin, our class “Writing for Children 101” may be perfect for you.
This class meets before every chapter meeting from noon-2 p.m., October through April. It covers plotting, dialogue and characters, as well as finding an agent,
writing a query and/or cover letter and finding the right publisher. Also included are monthly critiques of students’ work. By the end of the class, participants
should have a work ready to send out. Cost $50.00 for members and $60.00 for nonmembers. It is strongly recommended that students also purchase a
Season Ticket as the meetings serve as classes.
Register for the class (Sept. 11th thru Dec 9th) click here. CLASS IS FULL FOR THIS YEAR.
Register for a Season Ticket click here.
Illustrator Schmooze – On third Thursday of month: TBA for September 2022 – May 2023. For more information on Venue and dates click here.
Prior to Chapter Meeting Critique Groups – May meet from Noon to 1:45 PM if we have a location available, for Picture Book contact Kate Allen Fox critiquePB.sandiego.scbwi@gmail.com and for MG/YA critique groups contact Gigi Orlowski at critique.sandiego.scbwi@gmail.com.
Chapter Social Events
Our next social, hosted by Denise Harbison, will be on January 14, 2023, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM (PT) for a tour of the art exhibit.
Thank you to all who supported our longtime chapter member, book author Cindy Jenson-Elliot, by attending the gallery art show featuring the work of her late husband, Cristopher Elliot. Some SCBWI friends attended opening day of the exhibition “Superbia: Paintings by Chris Elliot — A Retrospective, 1985-2022: Landscape and Urbanscapes of a Changing San Diego, on December 17, 2022. Others attended our chapter social meetup there on January 14. And others have and will trickle through while the show continues through March, 2023. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to Cindy and her family. Please read more about Cindy, her family, and Chris’s art in this wonderful write up by The San Diego Union Tribune: “After her husband’s death, a San Diego widow wants to make sure his artistic legacy lives on”
Watch for more info in the monthly chapter newsletter and on our Facebook page.
Oscar Symposium for 2023 TBA
As of now we do not know if the Oscar Symposium will be open or even happening for 2023. If it is going to be open, we will endeavor to obtain tickets. Watch here for updates. In the past, the San Diego Chapter will once again be getting tickets for the Oscar Symposium in Los Angeles. Special thanks to Arlene Bartle for organizing the SCBWI chapter’s visit to this event, where attendees will hear questions and answers from foreign film producers, makeup and special effects artists, and actors. Tickets are $10 (non-refundable) and include a morning Foreign Film from 10 am to noon, and an afternoon Hair, Makeup, and Special Effects symposium from 3-5pm. There is a two-hour break for lunch.
Tickets will be available for purchase at the San Diego SCBWI website (sandiego.scbwi.org) from Nov. 10-Dec. 1 and payments collected via PayPal. Tickets will be distributed at the February 2023 meeting from 1:30 to 2 pm and from 4-4:30 pm or via mail. Due to the special invitation for this event, tickets can’t be resold to the general public. To purchase tickets click here once they are available for 2021.
International and U.S. Policies for Minimizing Covid Risk during SCBWI Region
Events
1. International Regions Policy: International regions are required to comply
with local regulations.
2. U.S. Regions are required to comply with the following policy:
To minimize the risk of Covid-19 at all SCBWI in-person events with more than 25
attendees, event organizers are required to implement the following attendance
policy:
• Require attendees to submit proof of vaccination, or proof of a negative PCR
test taken no earlier than three days prior to the event, as a condition of
attendance.
At any SCBWI in-person event, regardless of the number of attendees, organizers
must offer each attendee a free disposable mask, provide hand sanitizing stations
throughout the event area, and post this policy in its entirety in areas visible to
attendees.
Comments regarding this policy should be directed to SCBWI headquarters by
emailing covidpolicy@scbwi.org. Include your name and contact information in
order to receive a response.
(The above U.S. regions policy in its entirety should be included in U.S. regions’ event materials
and copies posted/made available at the event.)