2008 SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grants Announced -
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Nearly 400 entries were received for this year’s Work-in-Progress Grants. Winning grants are for $1,500. Runner-up grants are for $500. Our thanks to the judges and first readers and our congratulations to the winners.
General Fiction
Judges: Frank Sloan
(author, SCBWI Board of Advisors), Victoria Rock
(Chronicle Books), Darcy Pattison
(author).
Tiffany Trent of Radford, Virginia was this year’s winner. Her novel,
The Fossil Raiders, a fantasy set in Victorian London, follows sixteen-year-old Syms Covington and his hopes of joining Charles Darwin on board the HMS Beagle.
Tamara Ellis Smith of Richmond, Vermont was selected as Runner-Up. Her middle grade novel,
A Marble Looks Like Home, is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, during Hurricane Katrina and in Underhill, Vermont, where a boy grieves over the recent death of his best friend.
Contemporary Novel
Judges: Walter Dean Myers
(author, SCBWI Board of Advisors), Donna Bray
(Hyperion Books), Richard W. Jennings
(author).
This year’s winner is
Natalie Rompella of Elgin, Illinois. Her novel,
No More White Bears, is about 12-year-old Ana, a sixth grader with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, who is uprooted from her suburban Chicago home when her family moves to Alaska.
Runner-Up went to
Tara Nickerson of Cotuit, Massachusetts, whose novel,
Mercury in Retrograde, concerns headstrong Jeep who is struggling to deal with her parents’ dissolving marriage, her best friend’s problems with her older brother, and the most popular girl in the seventh grade.
Nonfiction Research
Judges: James Cross Giblin
(author, SCBWI Board of Advisors), Reka Simonsen
(Henry Holt), Mel Boring
(author).
Mary Cronk Farrell of Spokane, Washington is this year’s winner. Her project,
Angel on the Picket Line, is a biography of labor organizer Fannie Sellins, who rose from garment industry worker to organizer for the United Mine Workers of America.
Runner-Up,
Linda A. Odum of Concord, New Hampshire, is recognized for
The History Kitchen, a nonfiction book for children eight to twelve that tells the story behind kids' favorite foods, linking each to events in World and United States history.
Unpublished Writer
Judges: Melissa Stewart
(SCBWI Board of Advisors), Catherine Frank
(Viking Press), Julie Anne Peters
(author).
Stephanie Bearce of St. Charles, Missouri was chosen as this year’s winner for her book,
Maddie’s Miracle, which explores 11-year-old Maddie Sommers’ discovery that her mother has not been entirely truthful about her birth name, nor the whereabouts of family members.
Sally An Apokedak of Marietta, Georgia was chosen as Runner-Up for
The Kisses of the Enemy, a YA fantasy about 16-year-old Repentance Atwater, a low-born slave who discovers she has the mark of royalty.
Letters of Merit:
- Lydia Bobro Allen, Chagrin Falls OH (General)
- Swati Avasthi, Minneapolis MN (Unpublished Writer)
- Michele Barker, East Longmeadow MA (General)
- Barrie Bartlett, Seattle WA (Nonfiction Research)
- Molly Blaisdell, Woodinville WA (Contemporary Novel)
- Bill Cairns, Ottawa IL (General)
- Kirsten Cappy, Portland ME (Unpublished Writer)
- Michele Ivy Davis, Palm Harbor FL (General)
- Pamela M. Ehrenberg, Washington DC (General)
- April J. Gaff, Cedar Falls IA (Nonfiction Research)
- Amy Hansen, Greenbelt MD (Nonfiction Research)
- Valerie Battle Kienzle, St. Charles MO (Nonfiction Research)
- Jennifer Kramer, Marietta CA (Nonfiction Research)
- Robert Dale Kuntz, Parma Oh (General)
- Andrea McAfee, El Sobrante CA (Contemporary Novel)
- Carmella Marino, Naperville IL (Nonfiction Research)
- Sharon Mentyka, Seattle WA (Contemporary Novel)
- Barbara Rosenstock, Vernon Hills IL (Nonfiction Research)
- Jan Sherbin, Cincinnati OH (Unpubished Writer)
- Sarah Tomp, San Diego CA (Contemporary Novel)
- Lucia Zimmitti, South Glastonbury CT (Contemporary Novel)
Applications for the 2009 grants are available by sending an SASE to the SCBWI office, by checking the grants section on the SCBWI website, or by emailing scbwi@scbwi.org after the first of October. Everyone in the SCBWI, except for past winners is eligible to apply.