The Inside Scoop on Illustrators' Day 2019

Illustrator Coordinator TeMika Grooms is here with all the info on Illustrators' Day:

Join the Children's Book Illustration Community for our day dedicated to The Art of Storytelling.

We will dive into developing craft and the business to building a career as an illustrator in a competitive market. There are many paths to publication. We want you to be a strong visual storyteller no matter what path you choose.


 Keeping your work fresh as you grow your voice is important for illustrators.We'll kick off the day with Mark Braught, Award-Winning Illustrator and Educator. He will break down creating Self-Promotional Pieces Outside Your Client Projects. This insightful presentation will explore the difficult process of creating an illustration for yourself, why it’s important to keep this in your practice and how to approach this daunting challenge.


Maria Middleton, Art Director for Candlewick Press, will challenge us in Quick on the Draw! Hands on Workshop & Critique, a hands-on craft workshop, because illustrators need to work fast in this ever-changing industry. Bring your pens, pencils and sketch pads to gain valuable feedback from Art Director Maria Middleton as she takes you through a hands-on activity and brief review of your work.

She will follow the craft session with a mentorship review that challenged mentees to act as author-illustrators and discover new characters for their work. The Drawing on Discovery Mentorship Review will take a close look at the process of discovering the magical, terrible, wonderful, and shocking world of characters for your next story. The art director will provide a live review of Picture Book spreads and Middle Grade covers created in the Illustration Mentorship. This is a great session for any author-illustrator seeking to learn more about the art of storytelling.


Kevin Lewis, Agent for the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, will delve into the Things Art School Will Never Teach You: Publishing Insights for Illustrators (Especially Those Who Endeavor to Write). This session will give valuable hints from experience as an editor to Loren Long, Tony DiTerlizzi, LeUyen Pham, Kadir Nelson, Cynthia Rylant, Matt Cordell, Brian Pinkney, Antionette Portis, and Dav Pilkey, as an author, and as a picture book fanatic.



We will also announce the 2019 Liz Conrad Award Winner in honor of Illustrator Liz Conrad. Make sure you bring your portfolios to showcase you work during the Portfolio Show and experience the fast-paced Quick Fire Portfolio Review! We’ll round out the day with a faculty panel, with the addition of Monica Odom, Agent for Liza Dawson Associates, as they give us final thoughts on how to position ourselves for success in the kids lit market.




Thanks, TeMika! There's still room for YOU at Illustrators' Day, March 15th in Decatur, GA--click here to register today!

Spring To Success with SpringMingle'19 and AGENTS!

We're so excited to bring a handful of helpful agents to SpringMingle'19! Here's a quick introduction to our stellar list:

Alexandra Penfold is a literary agent with Upstart Crow Literary Agency and an author herself with  a couple of published books. She represents children's book authors and illustrators, and she'll be presenting several sessions on the Friday writing intensive tracks as well as an advanced breakout session on Saturday.

Kevin Lewis is an agent with the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, primarily focusing on writer-illustrators and diverse voices. He, too, is an author, with almost a dozen published picture books! He'll be very busy on Friday, with sessions at both the Picture Book Track and Illustrators' Day. And he'll join us on Saturday for a breakout session where he'll take a look at the #OwnVoices movement and other current publishing topics.

Monica Odom is an agent at Liza Dawson Associates where she represents a variety of nonfiction, literary, and upmarket fiction. She is committed to the expansion of diversity and inclusivity in the publishing industry. She's presenting a breakout session on Saturday for all the nonfiction writers out there.

With the ease of online querying, many agencies have found themselves slammed and closing their doors to submissions. And many publishing houses only accept agented submissions! So give yourself a helping hand and attend our conference. You could be the next writer or illustrator to Spring to Success with a little help from one of our agents!

And don’t forget about our Spread the Word Contest! Every time you spread the word—in a tweet, blog post, update or any social media—you’ll get an entry in the contest. The Breezer with the most entries will win $50 off registration, refunded to you when the contests ends (March 5th). For more details, check out this earlier post from our Southern Breeze blog.

Early Bird registration is available now through January 15th! Come join us and Spring to Success with SpringMingle'19!

                                      REGISTRATION OPEN! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER TODAY!