[Jenny Posts: 87 Status: Offline WWW]

Hi everyone.

When I try to submit for the wip awards it keeps prompting me to select 50 plus, but I'm not. Is anyone else having this problem?

Also, I'm a member of the lgbt+ community and wrote an lgbt+ themed story. Would this count as under represented voices?

[dinalapomy101 Posts: 1,875 Status: Offline Happy writing to all! WWW]

I tried to get to that web page earlier and it didn't load, so I have a feeling they are working on it behind the scenes? I would try again tomorrow....

And YES! I would definitely say that LGBT+ counts as underrepresented. More of that theme is needed for sure!

[mrh Posts: 4,759 Status: Offline www.marciahoehne.com WWW]

Jenny, as far as I can see, you are right.

I was able to get in, and when I reached the signup page, at the bottom of the form it asks you to *affirm eligibility* by checking the box stating that you are over 50 and not traditionally published. I think this must be an error. The award that requires you to be 50+ is the Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award, not the general WIP grant.

I'm sure you'd qualify to check the Underrepresented Voices box.

There must be other people with this question. One suggestion might be to reach out to your regional group/leadership and ask if anyone else has run into this and what they did.

[Mindy Alyse Weiss Posts: 3,642 Status: Offline A long journey - but I'm determined to get there!]

I'm sorry this happened, Jenny. It sounds like there's a glitch. We're going to contact someone at SCBWI to let them know. I hope it will be fixed soon! At least there's plenty of time before the deadline.

And yes...that definitely counts as a much-needed underrepresented voice.

[Jenny Posts: 87 Status: Offline WWW]

Thanks so much everyone. 😊

[RebeccaL-G Posts: 1,496 Status: Offline RA SCBWI Cen-Cal WWW]

I have alerted the SCBWI office about the problem.