Jewell Parker Rhodes Fellowship for Emerging Voices – About the Judges
About the Judges
SCBWI
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), a 501c3 nonprofit, is the preeminent membership organization for children’s book creators. We are a global community of writers, illustrators, translators, publishers, librarians, advocates, and other industry professionals working to establish a more imaginative and inclusive world through the power of children’s literature. Our mission is to support the creation of an abundance of quality children’s books, so that young people everywhere have the books they need and deserve.
Sherri L. Smith is the author of multiple award-winning fiction and nonfiction books for young people including the 2021 Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award winner, The Blossom and the Firefly and the California Book Awards Gold Medalist, Flygirl. Hernovels appear on multiple state reading lists and have been named Amelia Bloomer, Junior Library Guild, Children’s Book Council, Southern California Independent Booksellers Award, and American Library Association Best Books for Young People selections. She also writes comics, including Bart Simpson Comics, James Cameron’s Avatar and most recently, Wonder Woman. Sherri was a 2014 National Book Awards judge in the Young People’s Literature category. She has been a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook in Washington State, Wellstone-in-the-Redwoods and Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in California, and Wassard Elea in Ascea, Italy.
Currently, Sherri teaches in the MFA in Children’s Writing Program at Hamline University. Formerly, she taught at Goddard College. She was also the 2021 Mina Hohenburg Darden Visiting Professor at Old Dominion University.
We Need Diverse Books
We Need Diverse Books is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that takes a holistic approach in improving literacy and building compassion by affecting change across the entire reading pipeline — turning diverse manuscripts into published books and then donating diverse titles to readers nationwide.
Caroline Richmond (she/her) is the Executive Director of We Need Diverse Books, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that’s creating lifelong readers and a more compassionate world through the power of diverse literature. She is a member of various advisory boards, including the Little Free Library and Mayo Clinic Press. She is also an award-winning author and lives in Maryland with her family. Learn more about WNDB’s work at www.diversebooks.org.
Literary Agents of Change
Literary Agents of Change, the nonprofit born out of American Association of Literary Agents’ (AALA) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, was formed to help dismantle the barriers to entry into a career as a literary agent for members of historically underrepresented groups, particularly people of color while recognizing the systems of overlapping oppressions in regard to race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, class, and ability.
Stefanie Molina-Santos is an associate literary agent with Looking Glass Literary and a board member at Literary Agents of Change. Stefanie is currently seeking middle grade, young adult, and adult fiction & nonfiction, primarily by BIPOC authors. She’s open to all genres in MG, but prefers gutsy contemporary and grounded fantasy, horror, and mystery with a strong sense of adventure. Across the board she appreciates anticolonialism and decolonization; non-Western-centric perspectives (and folklore); and protagonists that disrupt the status quo.