Winchester Conference - Exciting Announcement to celebrate 20 years SCBWI BI



(from left) Keely Parrack,
Meg Fleming Lentz, Lin Oliver

I’m super excited to announce Lin Oliver, Executive Director and Co-founder of SCBWI will be at this year’s conference in Winchester on 19th & 20th November 2016. 

Have you saved the date yet? 


This spring, I was lucky enough to meet Lin Oliver through a joint SCBWI San Francisco South and San Francisco North & East Bay informal social. 

Lin is truly inspirational, she is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm. We sat outside in the afternoon sunshine sipping drinks and listening avidly to Lin, who was happy to talk about herself and the creation of SCBWI but she was mostly focused on us, SCBWI members. 


Drinking in every word.

Lin went around the circle of members asking what everyone was working on and if she could help – that’s right, help! Lin offered advice and insight, suggested pathways, anecdotes of her own experience, or simply congratulations, and always wishing everyone well. 


Advice is always on hand

She reminded people there was always someone in the SCBWI office and members can phone for advice. 

Lin’s excitement and enthusiasm for SCBWI is beyond infectious, talking passionately about the Summer Reading ListGrants for Students and many of the other wonderful SCBWI benefits.




After the social we pottered over to celebrate the launch of Lin's latest series, The Fantastic Frame. Again, Lin openly offered insight and advice into own her working process and made us all think about how we plan and who exactly our target audience is. She broke down how she approached character, diversity, hook, plot, setting and encouraged us to think about how our own books could fit into a school curriculum.  


Lin Oliver's book launch

Lin believes in SCBWI members, they make the organisation what it is. 

She has incredible energy and presence, which I can only encourage you to experience in person. Celebrate 20 years of SCBWI in the British Isles. Be inspired. Save the date and book onto the conference in November. 



Lin Oliver | Executive Director Lin is the co-founder of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. For much of her career, she was an executive in the film and television industry, having served as Executive Vice President of MCA Universal Studios for over 12 years. She is the writer and executive producer of over 300 episodes of television and three feature films directed at the family audience. During her career in film and television, she served as Executive Director of the SCBWI as a volunteer spending nights and weekends and vacations in the service of SCBWI while earning her living in filmed entertainment. Since 2000, she has not only led the SCBWI as Executive Director but simultaneously has pursued her career as a children’s book author. She has published over 35 books for children including a best-selling series about a child with learning differences that has sold over four million books. Her books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and her work has been recognized with The Christopher Award, the National Council of Teachers of English citation, and PEN International Special Award of Recognition. As Executive Director of SCBWI, she organizes, plans and directs the two major SCBWI national conferences. She is the liason with the major publishing houses and maintains close working relationships with leading professionals and executives in the field. She speaks at regional, national and international conferences on subjects ranging from the craft of creating children’s books to marketing and promotion and sales. She advises our members on creative matters, reviews selected manuscripts, sets policy, reviews and creates member benefits, and establishes new initiatives to benefit our members (e.g. online book launch events, speakers bureau, community bookstore events). She also manages staff and personnel matters, establishes programs with partner organizations (such as First Book or We Need Diverse Books or The American Library Association) and oversees much of the work of the regional advisors. She has a BA in English from UC Berkley, a Masters in Educational Psychology from UCLA, and has completed course work for an EdD from UCLA. She is recognized as a leading voice in promoting literacy and children’s literature.



Lou Minns is the joint Features Editor for Words & Pictures SCBWI BI and the new Social Media Co-ordinator for SCBWI San Francisco North & East Bay. 

Contact: writers@britishscbwi.org 

Follow: @LMMinns

7 comments:

  1. Lin was at the first SCBWI BI conference that I ever attended, and she was one of the funniest and warmest MCs ever for the Saturday night Mass Book Launch and party! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lin was at the first SCBWI BI conference that I ever attended, and she was one of the funniest and warmest MCs ever for the Saturday night Mass Book Launch and party! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lin Oliver gave the best talk I have ever heard on writing for children when she came to the conference a few years ago. I'm sure she'll inspire and enthuse us again.

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  4. So excited to see that Lin will be at the Conference too. She's wonderful - extra smart and has so much to offer, of course, but is also kind, unpretentious, and totally a generous advocate for all authors and illustrators.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So excited to see that Lin will be at the Conference too. She's wonderful - extra smart and has so much to offer, of course, but is also kind, unpretentious, and totally a generous advocate for all authors and illustrators.

    ReplyDelete

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