Information on our New Voices Award and New Visions Awards, two writing contests for unpublished authors of color.
With the New Voices submission deadline quickly approaching, aspiring picture book writers preparing to submit to the contest may be asking themselves “Am I ready to send off my story?”. If you are a writer grappling with this question, you’re in luck! We’ve assembled a checklist of ten questions you should ask yourself before submitting to the 2018 New Voices Award writing contest:
New York, NY—Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, is thrilled to announce the results of its fifth annual New Visions Award for new authors of color. Established to combat the low number of authors of color writing for children and teens, the New Visions Award is given to a middle grade or young adult manuscript. Winners receive a cash prize and a publishing contract with Lee & Low Books, a children’s book publisher specializing in diversity.
Previous winners of the New Visions Award include the novels Ink and Ashes, named one of the Best Books of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, and Ahimsa, named a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies. This year, two manuscripts were chosen to receive the award: Twin Flames by Olivia Abtahi, and The Regent Enigma by Luisana Duarte Armendáriz. Continue reading
It’s May and with the arrival of spring comes the opening of the nineteenth annual Lee & Low New Voices Award! We reviewed submissions from the past few years and identified several common pitfalls amongst the contest entries that did not win. We compiled these into the list below so that writers interested in submitting to our contest can avoid them:
This year, we’re opening submissions for our nineteenth annual New Voices Award and our sixth annual New Visions Award a month early. That means submissions for both awards are now open! The New Voices Award and the New Visions Award encourage writers of color and Native nations to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent.
New York, NY—January 18, 2018—LEE & LOW BOOKS is proud to announce that Maham Khwaja of West Hollywood, California is the winner of the company’s eighteenth annual New Voices Award. Her picture-book manuscript, The Journey, is a story of a young girl and her parents who are forced to flee their home country when violence threatens their community. In a series of beautiful, reflective poems, the protagonist describes her uncertainties as a refugee navigating a world that is not always welcoming, and her hopes for finding a new home. Continue reading
Today is the release day of Rebel Seoul, the New Visions Award-winning science fiction debut by Axie Oh! When Lee Jaewon is assigned to partner with supersoldier Tera in Neo Seoul’s top weapons development division, he must decide where he stands: with the people his rebel father protected or with the totalitarian government that claims it will end all war.
To celebrate today’s release, we asked author Axie Oh about her writing process, the inspiration behind Rebel Seoul, and her advice to aspiring authors.
September is here and with the close of summer comes the close of our New Voices Award submissions window on September 30, 2017. It’s also a time when those who have submitted manuscripts—and those still in the process of doing so—may be grappling with some personal questions:
Should I submit my story if I’ve never written for children before?
I’ve always been an artist, but can I be a writer?
What happens to the winner and honor after the award?
Where can I find good advice from someone with experience?
These questions and others like them are not easily addressed in a FAQ page. So to provide this year’s participants with some insight to the contest and creative process, we reached out to former New Voices Award winners, honors, and artists who faced some of these same questions not too long ago. These three accomplished storytellers have forged successful careers as children’s book authors, illustrators, and even author/illustrators. In the following interview, author Paula Yoo (Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds), illustrator Shadra Strickland (Bird and Sunday Shopping) and author/illustrator Don Tate (It Jes’ Happened) share how participating in the New Voices Award helped shape their success.
A few weeks ago we hosted our first webinar, “Shaping Up Your Manuscript: A Conversation With Our Editors,” sharing writing advice for those who are interested in submitting to our New Voices Award, our New Visions Award, or just our general submissions. You can now watch (or rewatch) it online here: Continue reading
The New Visions Award is open to all writers of color and Native/Indigenous authors who have not previously published a middle grade or young adult novel or graphic novel. The winner receives a standard publication contract, including an advance and royalties.
Watch Shaping Up Your Manuscript: A Conversation With Our Editors for more specific information on what we’re looking for in the craft department.
While most answers about the contest (like submissions qualifications and how to submit) can be found by thoroughly reading the complete rules on the New Visions Award page, below are some Frequently Asked Questions. Continue reading
You’re a writer working on a manuscript and you’ve finally got your two most important characters in the same room. There’s tension between them. One character has a question and the other has the answer. The conflict your plot has been riding on has finally come to a head—these characters need to say what’s been on their minds for pages!
But how do you make sure that your characters say what they need to in a way that’s believable to the reader? Nothing ruins a moment like this more than when the dialogue doesn’t flow or sound believable. If this is a problem you’re grappling with, don’t worry. We asked two previous New Voices Award-winning authors, Pamela M. Tuck (As Fast As Words Can Fly) and Glenda Armand (Love Twelve Miles Long) for their tips and tricks on writing successful, realistic dialogue.
