Enhanced Tomie dePaola Mentorship Award Launches SCBWI Artists
At their first meeting in February 2025 at the SCBWI New York Winter Conference, the 2025 Tomie Award winners met their mentors for the first time. From left to right: Jime Wimmer, Cecilia Yung, Amy Deshaies Sharp, Sully Ratke, Pat Cummings and Laurent Linn.
One of the most thrilling parts of every SCBWI Winter Conference is the Friday afternoon before the main programming starts, when the judges convene to choose the Portfolio Showcase winners. Three industry professionals peruse the beautiful collection of illustrations, searching for the key elements that signify a compelling artist is ready to break into the next level of the industry. This process is now twice as exciting, because as of 2025, there is a second set of judges analyzing the portfolios, working to select a small group of artists whom they will personally mentor for the next six months.
The Tomie dePaola Mentorship Award is back and more robust than ever, providing long-term guidance to talented SCBWI illustrators whose work show strong craftsmanship and a fresh distinct voice with a clear potential for narrative illustration. This year’s winners were Amy Deshaies Sharp, Jime Wimmer, and Sully Ratke. These three artists received mentorship from industry leaders who advised them through feedback and revision on craft and process to help them promote their work in the publishing industry.
Amy Deshaies Sharp’s website describes her as a “whirling dervish”, and that comes through in her playful designs and emotive, instantly lovable characters. She has worked for twenty years putting her creative skills to use in the advertising industry. A few months after becoming a Tomie mentee, she went on to win the Bronze Award at the Summer Portfolio Showcase. Amy lives in Memphis and is seeking representation.
@amydsharp.art on Instagram
Jime Wimmer is a Savannah-based artist and the Regional Illustration Coordinator of the Southern Breeze Region. Her “nostalgic storybooks” harken back to classic childhood impressions of kindness and cozy magic, serving as a bridge between generations. Jime was a finalist for the Martha’s Vineyard Drawing Award, and has won multiple Gold Medal awards from the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators. Her latest book, Dear Darwin, about the quest of an adorable tea-loving mouse, is currently on sale on the Wimmer Studios website.
@myprettylines & @wimmerswoods on Instagram
Sully Ratke, a member of the Illinois region, excels at both whimsical pencil drawings and moody, painterly illustrations. But not only is Sully an illustrator and painter, she makes everything from sculptures and puppets to music and costume design. She has designed stunning costumes for the Lookingglass Theatre Company, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Northwestern University, and more.
SCBWI has redeveloped the mentorship program to provide even more guidance and feedback over an extended period of time. The winners now meet with the mentors four times over a six month period. Mentor Cecilia Yung says, “[t]he idea is to build in time to rework their portfolio and process the feedback.” The current batch of winning illustrators first met in-person at the SCBWI Winter Conference, at an introductory luncheon with the mentors who hand-picked them from the showcase. They then met with their mentors later that month over Zoom, for an in-depth conversation about their portfolios and professional websites.
In addition to the hour-long one-on-one consultations with their mentor, the illustrators met twice more as a mentorship group, allowing them to connect with their peers and bounce questions off one another. By the end of July, the three winners had polished their portfolios, transformed their websites, expanded their marketing and promotion tactics, and gained crucial knowledge of industry protocol and the publishing process.
Jime Wimmer described the mentorship experience in glowing terms. “Participating in the Tomie dePaola Mentorship profoundly shifted my portfolio and the way I’m shaping my career. The generous insight from Cecilia Yung, Laurent Linn and Pat Cummings, equal parts expertise and encouragement, gave me concrete direction on my work, website, and next steps. I have made lifelong friends who have shared in this mentorship and I’m deeply grateful for the chance to present my physical portfolio for the first time in 18 years and am now attracting agents and art directors and having productive conversations today."
The award was created and named in honor of the legendary Tomie dePaola, who in addition to creating some of the most beloved children’s books of all time (Strega Nona, The Art Lesson), was also a tireless advocate for illustrators. He helped expand the illustrator programs at SCBWI (which in its earliest incarnation did not even include an ‘I’ for illustrators) into the thriving community for artists we have today.
The industry leaders serving as mentors are longtime icons of SCBWI, Pat Cummings, Laurent Linn, and Cecilia Yung. Laurent Linn, the president of the SCBWI Board of Directors, is an art director at Simon & Schuster and an illustrator-author. Pat Cummings, the prolific illustrator-author of children’s books (most recently, Trace and Where is Mommy?) is also a teacher at Pratt and Parsons, the New School for Design. Cecilia Yung is a former Executive Art Director of Penguin Random House, and has over forty years of experience in fostering artistic talent.
Cecilia Yung reflected on the experience of watching the mentees grow over the six-month period, explaining, “As a group, we discussed the elements of narrative illustration, the publishing process and the range of opportunities available in the industry. Individually, we analyzed their work to pinpoint ways to strengthen their work and the presentation of their portfolios and websites, and help them formulate a plan for their careers.
Amy had been in advertising, Jime teaches illustration and Sully does theater production design. Each already had clearly different style, voice and sensibility but they also brought their individual experience and skill set to the illustration work. It was exciting to see each of them blossom during the six month of the mentorship as they develop their strength, clarify their goals, and recognize their place in the industry. But it was especially great to see how much passion and persistence they had in common, and how supportive they are of each other.”
Based on the success of the new and improved program, SCBWI will be offering the Tomie dePaola Mentorship Award as part of the 2026 Winter Conference in New York City. Premium SCBWI members who are attending the conference in New York are welcome to apply, so long as they are unpublished or early-career (no more than two traditionally published books).
Eligible attendees must register for the conference online (registration opens on October 14) and sign up for the Portfolio Showcase. At registration, attendees will be given two choices: either to apply ONLY for the Portfolio Showcase or to submit their work to BOTH the Portfolio Showcase and the Tomie dePaola Award. By filling in the submission box marked “Portfolio Showcase with Tomie dePaola Mentorship Award Consideration,” they attest that they are eligible and wish to be considered for the Tomie dePaola Award.
CLICK HERE to read the full instructions, and act fast, because the Portfolio Showcase will sell out.
The winners of the 2026 Tomie dePaola Mentorship Award will be announced from the main stage of the Conference on the morning of Saturday, January 17, and they will meet their mentors at the Awards Luncheon that very afternoon! From there, the six-month mentorship journey begins, marking another step for these emerging artists on the road to creative success.