Date: October 10-12 (Oct. 9: optional personal retreat)

Application Deadline: September 5

Online information: Here

Brochure: Download here

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Join us for a working Writers' Retreat at Hummingbird Music Camp near Jemez Springs. Experienced children's book authors will lead small groups in a weekend of intensive critiquing, revising and writing. Participants will learn how to improve their own work by learning how to critique each others' work. The 15 participants will be split into three groups of five. By September 10 each writing group will exchange complete picture book manuscripts, or the first 20 pages of a novel, for advance reading. The weekend will include group critique sessions and time to work on revisions in a private bedroom.

For more information, download the brochure. See you there!

Notes from Chris, from the Spring News Messenger:

Hopefully I don't have to tell you about our spring conference. Hopefully, you were THERE.

But just in case you weren't

This year's conference started out much like last year (why mess with success?). We had our usual Friday evening party, with soft drinks, snacks, and socialization. The illustrators showed off their portfolios, and four people shared their work in mini book launches... Read more ...

Notes from Chris, from the Spring News Messenger:

I have two things on my mind right now. I'm unwinding from the big SCBWI conference in New York City, and gearing up for our conference here.

New York was fabulous! The keynote speakers included writing/illustrating powerhouses Nikki Grimes, David Wiesner, Carolyn Mackler, Susan Patron, and Richard Peck. I also heard two editors speak in their breakout sessions, "What I Want to Publish," Nancy Siscoe, from Knopf, does 12 to 15 books per year. She likes a bit of everything - young picture books to older young adult (YA). She says, "I'm most interested in character-driven stories.' ... Read more ...

note from Lucy Hampson July 10, 2008

Save the dates: Friday evening, April 17 and all day Saturday, April 18, 2009 -- that's  the weekend of our Handsprings 2009 Writing Conference at UNM Continuing Ed. Watch for more details and for the brochure in late February!

Notes from Chris, from the Winter News Messenger:

SCBWI New Mexico tried something different for our fall retreat this year. We returned to our usual location, Hummingbird Music Camp in the beautiful mountains near Jemez Springs. However, instead of general lecture/workshops, we split into four intensive critique groups, each led by an experienced author/teacher. Uma Krishnaswami, Vaunda Nelson and Betsy James led the three advanced groups, which exchanged manuscripts ahead of time. We met Saturday morning to critique ... Read more ...