ALL STORIES MENTORSHIP Launch

 

We are very excited to share that the All Stories programme is running again this year.

 

All Stories is an initiative that offers free opportunities for underrepresented children's book writers to develop their work. It's funded by Arts Council England, Inclusive Books for Children and the Authors' Licencing and Collecting Society.

 

This is a unique and exciting opportunity for writers of picture books or young fiction from underrepresented groups. The ten selected writers will benefit from a comprehensive mentorship package worth over £1500, which includes:

 

• Six months of 1-2-1 mentorship with a highly experienced freelance editor, running Sept 2024 to Feb 2025 
• Expert webinars with in-house editors to learn about the craft of writing and the publishing industry 
• Monthly book clubs where you’ll discuss and dissect published books and get to know your fellow mentees 
• A year’s membership to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, giving you access to advice, events and a supportive creative community 
• A year’s membership to the Royal Society of Literature, giving you access to free online and in-person events 
• A copy of the Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, which includes advice, tips and inspiration for children’s book creatives, articles by award-winning writers and illustrators and a comprehensive directory of agents and publishers 
• Introductions to agents at the end of the mentorship.

 

This will be the third year that this amazing mentorship programme will be running. You can read the articles last year's mentees wrote especially for Words & Pictures here.

 

Cabbi Charles

 

Shuna Beckett

 

Habon Jama

 

Olivia La Bastide

 

Jane Brydon

 

Olivia-Savannah Roach

 

Scar Ward

 

Taslin Pollock

 

Laura Warminger

 

Kenechi Udogu

 

To apply, you must be:

• from an underrepresented background (a person of colour, disabled, neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, working class or socio-economically marginalised) 
• unable to afford such a mentorship (worth over £1500) – this is self-certificated, but All Stories reserves the right to ask for evidence of low income 
• unagented and unpublished 
• resident in the UK 
• 18 or older

 

Applications are open now and will be closed at 11:59 pm on 24 June 2024!

 

*Header image designed by Tita Berredo

*

Tita Berredo is the Illustrator Coordinator of SCBWI British Isles and the Art Director of Words & Pictures. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter or www.titaberredo.com

Contact her at: illuscoordinator@britishscbwi.org.