Oct 13, 2009

PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Award open for submissions

I'm very proud to be a member of the PEN New England Children's Book Caucus. One of the greatest things we do is offer our annual Discovery Award for unpublished New England authors. I won this award in 2001 (before I was on the committee, of course) and now I'm the coordinator for the contest. Our 2010 contest is now open and below are the guidelines!


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Each year, the PEN New England Children’s Book Caucus honors emerging writers and writer/illustrators with its Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Winners will present their work to the public at the PEN New England Children’s Book Discovery Evening in May 2010, and winning manuscripts will be read by editors at major publishing houses. In past years, editors from Knopf, Candlewick, and Houghton Mifflin have read winning submissions.

Entrants must be residents of New England who have not been published in any genre (with the exception of magazines, anthologies and self-publishing), and the submitted work (or another work) must not be under contract to be published. While people who have self-published may submit, we ask that the piece they submit be unpublished. People who have done work-for-hire books are allowed to submit if their name did not appear on the work-for-hire. Previous winners of the contest are not eligible. We are able to accept only one entry per person, in one of the following four categories: picture books, novels, poetry and nonfiction.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, February 1 2010. Entries need only be postmarked by that date. If you want to be sure your entry has been received, enclose a self-addressed and stamped postcard. Please do not require a signature for delivery.

All work should be—in both format and quality—ready for consideration by a publisher. The Caucus does not determine ahead of time the number of winners or the categories to be represented. Winners will be notified by late March.

To submit your work, please follow these guidelines:

1. Each submission of text should be approximately 10 pages in length, double-spaced, though picture books may be shorter. PLEASE NOTE: Manuscripts will not be returned.

Picture books: Send complete text. If you are a writer and not an illustrator, there is no need to send along illustrations. Similarly, illustrators are encouraged to submit illustrations without text. In this case, please send a portfolio of 3-5 illustrations. Author/illustrators should include sample illustrations or a book dummy, which will be returned if an appropriate SASE is provided. Do not send original artwork.

Middle grade or Y/A novels: Send one or two chapters, and a one-page synopsis.

Poetry: Send up to ten poems.

Nonfiction: Send one or two chapters, plus a brief outline or table of contents.

2. Include a short biographical statement about your experience and interest in the field.

3. Include a phone number and e-mail address (if available).

4. Enclose a letter-sized SASE for notification of decisions.

5. Mail your submission to:
PEN New England/CBC Discovery Night
c/o Kim Ablon Whitney
34 Stafford Rd.
Newton Centre, MA 02459

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