2024 Judges

Each entry will receive two judging sheets from anonymous Southern Breeze published members (each of these volunteer judges is an expert in his or her category but we have chosen to keep them anonymous just as your entries are anonymous to them).

These author-judges will then decide which entries in each category are among the best 15, and those 15 will be sent to our professional judges.

The professional judges will provide judging sheets with ratings and feedback for the manuscripts they receive and will determine which receive first, second, and third place, plus any honorable mentions.

Below are the bios for the professional judges for 2024

Jazmia Young is an associate agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. She received her bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at the City College of New York and was a graduate of the Publishing Certificate Program at CCNY. She is interested in representing children’s books, picture books through YA, focusing on middle-grade fiction/non-fiction with the goal of amplifying underrepresented voices and experiences. She particularly loves stories with friendship ties, complicated family dynamics, and grief or loss. Being a New York native, anything based in the great NYC has her heart. Jazmia is also the Administrative Assistant of the Association of American Literary Agents.

Jenissa Graham's publishing career started at Writers House when she was selected for the Fall 2020 internship class. In January 2021, she was hired full-time in the subrights department as the Global Licensing and Media Rights Assistant. She moved to BookEnds in April 2022, where she is thrilled to begin building a list as an Associate Agent and Subrights Manager. Jenissa is interested in increasing the BIPOC space in Publishing and is always on the lookout for new underrepresented authors. Born in upstate New York and raised in Georgia, Jenissa is a first-generation Jamaican. She is an alumna of Georgia State University where she received her Bachelor’s in English, Creative Writing. Jenissa currently lives in New York, and when she’s not reading submissions, plotting new story ideas, or adding books to her never-ending to-be-read pile, you will most likely find her snacking, power napping, or binging reruns of Criminal Minds and The Office.

Jane Chun is a literary agent at Transatlantic Agency. She joined Transatlantic in 2023 after four years at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Prior to her time at J&N, she worked on a freelance project for HG Literary and interned at Writers House and Maximum Films & Management. Before entering the publishing world, Jane attended NYU where she majored in History and minored in Business of Entertainment, Media, and Technology; Creative Writing; and Spanish. She returned to NYU shortly after graduation and a brief stint at Asian CineVision and the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) to receive her M.S. in Publishing with distinction. She is a native New Yorker.