SCBWI South Africa - Our Blog

"Write from your heart. Always have your work edited by experienced people (definitely more than one). Family and friends are okay but just in the beginning. You'll need honest constructive criticism. Take a note of all the comments but listen to your gut - after all the story is yours. If you’re self-publishing, pay great attention to detail and quality."

Congratulations to Jesse Breytenbach; and new books by our members that came out in May - September.

Over the past few months our wonderful ARA, Yvette, has been working hard to reestablish a presence for SCBWI in Gauteng. She has orchestrated two events, all of which were generously hosted by Open Window Institute in Centurion.

At the end of July 2024, and after an extremely generous term of service, Elaine Ridge stepped down as our Regional Advisor. A little shuffling, a lot of pondering and a bit of recruiting went on behind the scenes but we are now ready to officially announce our new Regional Team for South Africa!

Last month, Elaine Ridge stepped down as Regional Advisor for South Africa after a whopping 16 years of service on the Regional Team. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us so generously, Elaine. Those are going to be some big shoes to fill! Elaine is not leaving SCBWI entirely (phew), and will still be actively involved in our writers’ critique group. However, we didn’t want her to slope off too quietly, so we nabbed her for a quick interview to hear about her experience of volunteering for us.

Congrats to our SCBWI members, Scharon Campbell, Allan Low, and Elizabeth Sparg on their new book releases!

Allan Low has worked with rural communities in Eastern and Southern Africa for forty five years. Eleven years ago Allan and his late wife, Anne, setup the charity SHAMBA. SHAMBA works with communities to enable their most disadvantaged children from AIDS affected households gain access to high quality early childhood care and education through their ‘Bright Future’ preschools. Allan now lives in Wetherby, UK and continues to visit the charity and manage its work.

Mark your calendars! Open Window and SCBWI South Africa are thrilled to invite you to 'Pages in Progress: A Children's Book Exhibition'

Open Window and SCBWI present a watercolour workshop focusing on background and character development techniques in children’s book illustration.

These prestigious prizes serve to recognise and act as an incentive for Afrikaans writers to produce quality work in their mother tongue.

Towards the end of 2022, the SCBWI’s Impact and Legacy Fund granted $500 for books to go to the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town – an indication of just how well regarded internationally this wonderful hospital is.

Emily House, our Illustrator Coordinator, has been busy over the past year. We are so proud of her achievements but also wanted to draw your attention to this article on Words and Pictures, the SCBWI British Isles blog, where Emily was recently featured.

SCBWI SA has the privilege of being one of the nominating bodies for this prestigious award given to authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and people or organisations that work with reading promotion for children and young people.

Our SCBWI South Africa members have been busy recently with a lot of new book birthdays to announce! Huge congratulations to:

"I think that it is important to write science non-fiction books for children as they will be the next generation of decision makers, scientists and conservationists and we need to enlighten them about the importance and value of science while they are still young and inquisitive."