Are you an aspiring or emerging children’s author or illustrator in need of a mentor?

CANSCAIP is delighted to announce a call for applications for the second annual Online Blue Pencil Project. Please read carefully because there are some changes from last year.

If you would you like to have your manuscript or illustrations critiqued by a published author or illustrator, please send a cheque for the required amount with the information below by August 3rd . Please do NOT send a manuscript or illustrations at this time.

Applicants may apply to have ONE of the following critiqued:

1) ONE piece of work up to 10 pages in length ($20) or
2) A group of 10 or fewer illustrations ($20) or
3) ONE dummy book ($40) or
4) 50 pages of ONE novel ($50)
(CANSCAIP will supplement Mentor fees.)

If choosing option 1 or 4, applicants should specify one of the following categories:

a) Picture Book
b) Early Reader
c) Middle Grade
d) Young Adult
e) Non-fiction

In addition, applicants might want to tell us a few details about the work (ie “a high fantasy in the tradition of Tolkien” or a “rhyming picture book in the tradition of Loris Lesynski”) so that we may match each work to the best Mentor. Again, do NOT send the work itself.

Protégés must be current Friends of CANSCAIP, but applicants may join at the time of applying. http://www.canscaip.org/joining.html

Mentors will be published authors or illustrators who are full members of CANSCAIP with at least two children’s or YA books . Protégés will be selected by lottery if applicants exceed expectation. Your cheque will not be cashed until you have been chosen. Last year CANSCAIP was able to accommodate all applicants and we will do our best to do the same this year.

The program will take place during August and September so please do not apply if you will be away for a significant portion of that time.

After your selection you will be given contact information and a deadline for submitting work to your assigned Mentors, on-line or snail mail, whichever works best for both Protégé and Mentor. Please be prepared to submit your work by as early as August 15th.

The writing must be ONE work, double spaced, 12-point type size with at least one inch margins. The illustrations/dummy books can be photocopies or digital pieces. Do not submit original work.

Mentors will respond with one critique of a maximum of two pages for options 1-3, four pages for option 4. If you wish, you may submit one brief letter or email of follow-up questions after receiving the critique.

NOTE: This project was created to help Friends develop and polish their writing or illustration technique, and does not guarantee publication!

Send cheques and applications to:

CANSCAIP Blue Pencil
104-40 Orchard View Blvd.
Toronto, ON M4R 1B9

CANSCAIP’S looking west. Prairie Horizon’s 2009 Conference is now accepting registrations.

When: September 18th-20th, 2009
Where: St. Michael’s Retreat, Lumsden, Sask.
Who’ll be there? Hazel Hutchins, Anita Daher, Linda Aksomitis, Bob King and more!

The Prairie Horizon’s 2009 page has more information (it’s also linked in the right column). Or email us at prairiehorizons@gmail.com.

This year’s theme is Climbing the Beanstalk to Creative Success. Come climb with us!

Well, the sun headed north past the equator today at 7:44 GMT this morning, and look what has bloomed! The Spring CANSCAIP News, featuring creator Frieda Wishinsky!

You’ll find it in the Member/Friends section, in PDF format.

CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors Illustrators and Performers, is delighted to announce its second Mentors’ Dinner.

On Wednesday, April 22nd in Toronto, CANSCAIP will be honouring one of the children’s book world’s most best loved mentors: teacher and editor, Peter Carver.

Proceeds from the event will go to a CANSCAIP’s Mentor Fund and will be used to support aspiring and emerging children’s authors and illustrators.

Because CANSCAIP is now a National Arts Service Organization, we will be able to give you a tax receipt for donations to the Mentor Fund and for the donation portion of the dinner.

Check back for further information, or email office@canscaip.org if you would like to receive an invitation.

Hope to see you there.

About our Mentor Fund

Imagine having your manuscript or portfolio critiqued by one of Canada’s most prestigious children’s-book professionals. Last summer, CANSCAIP made this dream come true for 59 aspiring authors and illustrators across Canada. Each received a professional author or illustrator as a Mentor for their work. CANSCAIP would like to expand this very popular project. If you would like to contribute to our Mentor Fund, CANSCAIP would be happy to give you a charitable tax receipt for the full amount of your donation.

Historic Joy Kogawa House Writer-in-Residence
Call for Expressions of Interest
April to June 2010

Historic Joy Kogawa House will host a resident author between
April 1 and June 30, 2010, as part of its writer-in-residence program.

Writers are encouraged to identify innovative ways their residency will
foster greater appreciation for Canadian writing and involve communities not
typically exposed to Canadian literature. Please mail, fax, or e-mail
applications by midnight on February 1, 2009, to:

Author Residency Selection Committee
Historic Joy Kogawa House
1450 West 64th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6P 2N4
E-mail : kogawahouse@yahoo.ca
Fax : 604.263.6581

For application guidelines, visit www.kogawahouse.com.

An Important Message to all Publishers, Authors and Heirs of Authors about the Google Settlement.
This settlement has the potential to affect every copyright owner in Canada. It is important to read the following message and forward it onto other copyright owners that you know.

There is a proposed landmark settlement to lawsuits brought against Google separately by book authors and the Authors Guild, and publisher representatives of the Association of American Publishers alleging that the scanning/digitization of books for its Google Book Search program infringed copyright in the United States.

Access Copyright is involved in the proposed settlement by working closely with a U.S. firm that is implementing the class action notice program.

We encourage you to read the full Notice about the settlement http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/r/view_notice, which has detailed information about the settlement, important terms, the claims process, and key dates. Want to know more first? Read this article prepared by Access Copyright to understand why you should care about the Google settlement. http://www.accesscopyright.ca/docs/WhytheGoogleSettlementMatterstoYou.pdf

Access Copyright’s Google Settlement Seminars:

To help Canadian copyright owners understand the implications of this settlement, Access Copyright is offering seminars on the settlement.

Web-based seminars will be offered on the following dates (all times in Eastern Standard Time):

Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:30 a.m. – noon

Monday, January 26, 2009 9:30 a.m. – noon

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Based on demand, we may add additional web-based seminars in February. Please stay tuned for more details.

A seminar on the Google settlement will also be held at Access Copyright’s offices at One Yonge Street in Toronto on Thursday, February 12, 2009 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

If you’re interested in participating in any of these seminars, please email us with your contact details and which session you want to attend. editor@accesscopyright.ca Please note that space for all seminars is limited so it is important to reserve your spot as soon as possible. We will follow-up up via return email to confirm your attendance and provide any additional information you may need, including access information to the Web-based seminar.

If you have any general questions, please contact us at 416-868-1620 (toll-free 1-800-893-5777) or email us by clicking editor@accesscopyright.ca

Our offices are closed for the holidays until Monday, January 5th. Wishing you all a happy 2009.

The Writers’ Union of Canada is holding its 10th annual Postcard Story Competition with a $500 prize awarded to the winning entry. The deadline for entry is February 14, 2009. The main contest link is http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp.

What could be a rarer gem at this time of year than the Winter CANSCAIP News? Actually, you’re right, a new set of winter tires west of the Ottawa river, now that they are legally mandatory in Quebec. Good answer. But almost as rare is the current issue of the News with a profile of author Vivien Bowers.

You’ll find it in the Member/Friends section, in PDF format.

The Public Lending Right program’s registration period will be open from 15 February to 1 May 2009. Are you registered?

Yes.

If you have moved recently, you must update your address with the PLR Commission. Send us your change of address by mail, fax, telephone or e-mail, indicated below.

No.

If you are an author, co-author, editor, translator, illustrator, photographer or anthology contributor, you may be eligible for a PLR payment for the service of your books held in Canadian public libraries. For further information, visit our website at www.plr-dpp.ca or contact us by using one of the methods indicated below.

Public Lending Right Commission / Commission du droit du prêt public
350 Albert, P.O. Box 1047 / C.P. 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Tel: 1 800 521-5721
Fax: (613) 566-4418
E-mail: plr@canadacouncil.ca
www.plr-dpp.ca

CANSCAIP’s November conference is now sold out and we will not be taking registrations at the door.

Call for Submissions to the 32nd annual Atlantic Writing Competition

WFNS invites aspiring Atlantic writers to send unpublished manuscripts by December 5, 2008.

For over three decades, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia has been challenging writers in Atlantic Canada to explore their talents by sending work to the annual Atlantic Writing Competition for unpublished manuscripts. Since 1976, more than 500 prizes have been won by novelists, poets, non-fiction and children’s writers. Many of today’s best known writers first tested the waters and placed in the Atlantic Writing Competition, including Ami McKay, Lesley Choyce, Budge Wilson, Lynn Coady, Lulu Keating, and George Elliott Clarke.

The competition encourages writers to write for existing markets and is judged in five different categories: poetry, novel, short story, children’s picture book and YA novel. Submissions are accepted from anyone (at least 16 years old) who has been resident in the Atlantic Provinces since June 1, 2008. Published writers may not enter in a category in which they have been published or produced.

Each entry is judged by professionals working in the field, with short individual critiques returned to participating writers. Cash prizes ranging from $50 to $200 are awarded to the top three submissions in each category at a not-to-be-missed Gala Celebration of Writers and Writing in September, 2009.

No manuscript will be accepted without a completed entry form and fee ($15/entry or $10 WFNS member/student/senior for all categories except novel, where the fee is $25/$20). For complete details and to obtain a copy of the required entry form, please visit www.writers.ns.ca /awc.html .

We are now sold out of lunches for our fabulous fall conference, Packaging Your Imagination. However there is still room left in all the workshops.

This year’s lineup is particularly impressive. Come see Aubrey Davis, Kit Pearson, Karen Patkau, Gillian O’Reilly, Kathy Stinson, Julie Lawson, Kady MacDonald Denton, Lynne Missen (HarperCollins Canada Executive Editor), Jo Ellen Bogart, Ted Staunton, Celia Godkin and Karen Boersma (Publisher, Kids Can Press). To top it all off, world renowned author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay will be giving the keynote address.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Registration: 8:30 am
Workshop location: Victoria College
University of Toronto
73 Queen’s Park Cres. East
Toronto, Ontario

Download a brochure at: www.canscaip.org/pyi.html

This year, CANSCAIP will again be having a booth at The Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival in Toronto. It’s always a great day full of books, readings, discussions, performances, and roasted corn on a stick.

CANSCAIPers Anne Love, Jane Drake, Jeremy Tankard, Helaine Becker, Elizabeth MacLeod, Kathy Stinson, Andrea Beck, Bill Slavin, Alan Cumyn, Karen Patkau, Loris Lesynski, Edo van Belcom, Shane Peacock, Kristyn Dunnion, Theo Heras, Harriet Trianthe Xanthakos, Debbie Carroll, Marthe Jocelyn, Mireille Messier and Richard Scrimger will all be on stage at various times throughout the day. (Plus some non-CANSCAIPers too, but you won’t have time to see them.) Check out the full schedule at www.thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/whats_on_schedule.asp

And drop our booth, number WB12 in the Writers’ Block, if you get a chance!

Lunches are going fast for our fabulous fall conference in Toronto, Packaging Your Imagination. Our intrepid registrar, Kathlene Willing, estimates that they will be gone by October 1st which means if you’d like a lunch, you should send in your application in the mail this week. Unfortunately, we cannot take phone reservations. There is still room left in all the workshops.

This year’s lineup is particularly impressive. Come see Aubrey Davis, Kit Pearson, Karen Patkau, Gillian O’Reilly, Kathy Stinson, Julie Lawson, Kady MacDonald Denton, Lynne Missen (HarperCollins Canada Executive Editor), Jo Ellen Bogart, Ted Staunton, Celia Godkin and Karen Boersma (Publisher, Kids Can Press). To top it all off, world renowned author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay will be giving the keynote address.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Registration: 8:30 am
Workshop location: Victoria College
University of Toronto
73 Queen’s Park Cres. East
Toronto, Ontario

Download a brochure at: www.canscaip.org/pyi.html

Writing With Style (Spring) 2009
April 20 to 25, 2009
Application deadline: February 2, 2009
Director: Edna Alford
Faculty: Michael Crummey (Chapter One Novel), Alan Cumyn (Writing for Children), Marilyn Dumont (Poetry), Myrna Kostash (Creative Non-Fiction.)

Gain confidence in a specific writing genre, while shaping a work-in-progress under the guidance of an experienced editor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO APPLY:
The Banff Centre, Office of the Registrar
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Box 1020
Banff, Alberta T1L 1H5, CANADA
1-800-565-9989 or 1-403-762-6180
arts_info@banffcentre.ca
www.banffcentre.ca

The days have begun their inexorable dwindling, and what could be better to warm us up than the Autumn CANSCAIP News? Uh, put your hands down, it was a rhetorical question. This issue profiles author Susan Juby.

You’ll find it in the Member/Friends section, in PDF format.

This summer, 59 friends of CANSCAIP received a professional author or illustrator as a mentor for their work. Each had 10 pages of a manuscript or 10 illustrations critiqued by a full member of CANSCAIP for the nominal fee of $20. After the critique they were allowed an email exchange of follow-up questions with their mentor. Here’s what some of our protégés had to say about the experience:

I thought it was a VALUABLE experience. The process, about one month during the summer, was well timed. The feedback from my mentor was supportive and informative. I appreciated my mentor sharing her knowledge of the publishing industry. The added-value of sending a follow-up question page after the critique was very valuable to me.

I think this experience will help me be a better writer.

My mentor for the Blue Pencil project did a great job. She identified the weaknesses in a very positive and supportive way and also gave very encouraging positive feedback. Thank you so much for the opportunity and a huge thank you to all the mentors.

Thank you for such a perfect match…it has been the best critique I have had … I told (my mentor) that I feel like a bird who has been let out of a cage and can fly freely.

We’re happy to announce that we will be doing it again next summer and that we hope to make this an annual project.

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
October 4, 2008
National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Do you write or illustrate for children or teens? Are you wondering if you need an agent, unsure about what they do or how to acquire one? This is the event for you to get all the answers.

FEATURING:
Kendra Marcus, Agent, BookStop Literary Agency, California, www.bookstopliterary.com
Rebecca Sherman, Senior Agent, Writers House, New York, www.writershouse.com

The brochure /registration form for the SCBWI Canada East Agents’ Day is
now available on the Events
page of our website at www.scbwicanada.org/east/events.htm