MENTORSHIP AWARDS
Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award
Cynthia Leitich Smith is an inspiration not only as an award-winning and best-selling author, but also as a champion of children’s book writers. Cynthia also is an extremely generous member of the Austin kidlit community, offering up her time and knowledge to help fellow writers whenever she can. She embodies the kind of writer we all try to be.
The award bearing Cynthia’s name follows her example and gives guidance to up-and-coming writers. Inspired by the Houston SCBWI chapter's Joan Lowery Nixon Award, the Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award starts with the critiques at the annual Austin SCBWI conference. Critiquers nominate one of the manuscripts submitted to them for the award, if they feel the manuscript is of a high enough level. The nominated writers will make up the finalists, who will be announced in the Austin newsletter. The finalists’ work will then be submitted to the mentor, who will choose the winner, announced on our website after the conference.
This award is open to anyone doing a critique during the 2025 conference. This includes people attending 1-1 virtual or online no matter the style of critique.
This year we will be offering 2 mentorships, one for picture book authors and one for novelists.
Presenting the 2025 Mentors
Novelist Mentor: Samantha M. Clark
Samantha M Clark is the award-winning author of THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST and ARROW (both published by Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster) and AMERICAN HORSE TALES: HOLLYWOOD (Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House), as well as the GEMSTONE DRAGONS chapter book series (Bloomsbury). She lives with her husband and two funny dogs in Austin, Texas, and helps other writers through her Your Writing Mentor newsletter.
Picture Book Mentor: Nicholas Solis
Nicholas Solis is an award-winning elementary educator, as well as a writing teacher at The Writing Barn in Austin, Texas. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Grant from We Need Diverse Books. He has taught students all over the globe—from Tanzania to Texas—and there’s one thing he’s learned from his world travels: kids are kids everywhere you go. Nick is a prolific author who writes picture books, middle grade novels, and poetry. His debut author/illustrator book, THE STARING CONTEST, released with Peter Pauper Press in September 2020 and was nominated as a Redbud Read Aloud Award finalist for 2022. THE COLOR COLLECTOR, with Sleeping Bear Press, came out April 15th, 2021 and was nominated for the 2022-2023 Keystone Reading Elementary Book Awards. MY TOWN, MI PUEBLO, with Nancy Paulsen Books, was released August 16th, 2022 and made Texas Library Association’s Tejas Star List for 2023 - 2024. His latest book, THE LITTLEST GRITO, came out September 1st, 2024. He lives with his wife, their dog, and their sons, Leo and Milo, in Austin, Texas.