Congratulations 2025 SCBWI Award Winners
Announcing the winners of the A. Orr Award, SCBWI Ezra Jack Keats Prize, and Volemos Grant
Created to launch the career of Hispanic/Latinx/Ibero-American writers, the Volemos Grant offers career coaching and $500 to the author of a promising picture book, middle grade, or young adult novel written in English or Spanish.
This year's winner was Melanie Wick Singer for "La Canción of Apartment C”.
This award is open to authors of Hispanic/Latinx/Ibero-American heritage who are early in their career (1-3 traditionally published books) or not yet traditionally published. Our judge, Angela Dominguez, author-illustrator of the Stella Diaz and Gabby Torres series, had this to say about Singer's work:
"There were many wonderful pieces submitted to this year’s Volemos Grant, and I was honored to read them all. What stuck out to me was that each author had their own unique story. It made it challenging to select only one winner, and I encourage everyone who submitted to keep writing.
For this year’s recipient, I have selected Melanie Wick Singer’s LA CANCIÓN OF APARTMENT C. Melanie depicts a whole community in one building and beautifully interweaves Spanish in her picture book manuscript. Like a song, the story builds, and the use of repetition was implemented expertly. LA CANCIÓN OF APARTMENT C will make for a wonderful read aloud and I look forward to seeing it in print one day."
Melanie Wick Singer's work will also be featured in the inaugural SCBWI Award Winning Writing Showcase at the New York Winter Conference.
This year's winner was Perin Gürel for “Laleh and the Language of the Birds."
The A. Orr Award was created by Michele Orr in memory of her sister, Alice Orr, a fantasy novelist. Every year, a middle grade or young adult writer working in the fantasy or science fiction genre is awarded $600 and free tuition to the Virtual Winter Conference.
This year's winner was chosen by editor Ari Lewin of Ari Lewin Creative. She had this to say about her choice:
"For its truly lovely writing, organic-feeling main character, and promising premise, I've chosen Perin Gürel's "Laleh and the Language of the Birds" as the A. Orr Fantasy winner! Of course, there were many excellent pieces to read here, but after 20 years as an in-house editor, and now at the top of my freelancing career, I found that Perin's writing really stood out to me, and I'm very happy to be able to help SCBWI encourage this fledgeling author!"
This year's winner was Madly Kim.
In honor of Ezra Jack Keats, the legendary author and illustrator of children’s books including The Snowy Day, Whistle for Willie, and Peter’s Chair. One promising BIPOC illustrator is awarded a cash prize of $3,500 to further develop their career. This year's judge, Jasmin Rubero, Senior Director of Penguin Random House, selected illustrator Madly Kim as the 2025 EJK Prize winner.
Rubero said of Madly's work, "There is such beautiful movement in Madly’s art with body language that sings like the music that was depicted in the samples. I enjoyed how two of the images had so much story in its content, composition, and color choices. The transparent washes are beautifully balanced with bold touches of color."
Visit Madly Kim's profile to view her award-winning art.
All three of these awards will be offered again in Spring/Summer 2026 through the SCBWI Member Home.