Crystal Kite Award

Crystal Kite Member Choice Awards

2023 DATES 

• March 21 – Submission deadline.
• March 31 – Preview period closes.
• April 1 – Round 1 voting begins.
• April 14 (5pm PDT) – Round 1 voting ends.
• April 18 – Round 2 voting begins.
• April 30 (5pm PDT) – Round 2 voting ends.
• May 2023 – Winners announced.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

Eligibility:

• You must be a current member to nominate your book and at the time the award announcement is made. 
• Nominated books must be a PAL book first published within the previous calendar year. Click here for more information on PAL publishers.
• Self-published books cannot be nominated.

Guidelines:

• Enter your book by adding it to your publications on your member profile. More info on adding your books here.
• Indicate that you would like the book entered by checking the “Crystal Kite” box.
• We have strict anti-spamming rules. Once your book is entered you may promote the Award, but not your specific title, on social media and to personal friends. You may not:
  • Send emails to people you do not know to promote your book.
  • Use the SCBWI messaging system to promote your book.
  • Use any SCBWI discussion board of listserv to promote your book. 
  • Doing any of these will immediately flag your book for deletion in the Crystal Kite Awards. 
• Winners are announced in May in a press release and on the SCBWI website/social media.  Winners receive a crystal, engraved kite award, an opportunity to present at a regional conference, a silver sticker for their winning book, and one winner will be chosen to present at the SCBWI Summer Conference.

VOTING 

• You must be a current member to vote.
• You may only vote once per voting round.
  • Round 1: April 1 – April 15
  • Round 2: April 18 – April 30
• You may only vote for a book that is in your own division (divisions below).

DIVISIONS 

United States:

• Atlantic (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland)
• California, Hawaii
• Midsouth (Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana)
• Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio)
• New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island)
• New York
• Southeast (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama)
• Southwest (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Southern Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico)
• Texas, Oklahoma
• West (Washington, Northern Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota)

International:

• Australia, New Zealand
• Canada
• Europe, Latin America, Africa
• Middle East, India, Asia
• United Kingdom, Ireland

FAQ 

Check out the Crystal Kite FAQ page here, which includes voting instructions. 

For social media posts, use #SCBWI22CK.

Further questions? Please email Christopher Cheng, our SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Award Coordinator, at christophercheng@scbwi.org.