The Asian Festival of Children's Content 2015

It's almost time for the biggest children's literary event in the region - The Asian Festival of Children's Content - or AFCC as it is popularly known. 

If you're an aspiring author or illustrator, it's the place to be. This year the conference will be a week-long affair that includes a Teachers Congress, Parents Forum, and the Writers & Illustrators Conference as well as masterclasses, seminars, workshops and a media summit. 

Wendy Orr

With Sally Gardner

Susanne Gerry

Candy Gourlay, Wendy Orr, Sally Gardner, Susanne Gervay, Naomi Kojima, Marjorie Coughlan, Corinne Robson, Leonard Marcus, James Mayhew, Christopher Cheng, Ken Spillman, Andrew Weale, Norm Jorgensen, James Foley, Suzy Lee, Yusof Gajah, Emily Lim, Shamini Flint, Dianne Wolfer, Eliza Teoh, Mio Debnam,Adeline Foo, Sarah Odedina, Otto Fong, David Liew are just some of the illustrious speakers who have graced the event. 

Now if you're hankering to get your work discovered, I've got some great news for you. All aspiring authors and illustrators will  have a chance to pitch their story ideas at speed pitching sessions and they can also have their illustrations or stories critiqued at the First Look and First Pages critique panels. But space is extremely limited at each of these sessions so register quickly if you don't want to miss out on your potential big break. 

Leonard Marcus and James Mathew

Ken Spillman

Attendees will get a glimpse of the glitterati of the literati at the first awards of the literary award season. Just like Hollywood has the Golden Globes, The Screen Actors Guild Award and The Oscars,  AFCC has the SPBA, The HACBA and The SKTAA.

After weeks of anticipation, the authors and illustrators nominated for the Scholastic Picture Book Award,  Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award, and Samsung KidsTime Author Award will finally find out who will walk away with the coveted prizes! 

Good luck to all the nominees. OK, I know everyone says that it's an honour to be nominated and it doesn't matter if they win or lose; the nomination is the award enough. Blah, blah, blah.  I say that's absolute rubbish! Rubbish, I say. Everyone wants to win! They really, really, do. Having been a previous Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award nominee and speaking from experience *wink wink, nudge nudge*  I have to say I think it's a lot nicer to  accept the award and collect the winner's  cheque than to plaster a smile on your face and applaud graciously when someone else is announced as the winner.   (I'm an author, not an actor for crying out loud. LOL!;)) But I have to concede that if winning is not an option saying you were a nominee is the next best thing.

The Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award

Though some say The Asian Festival of Children's Content is similar to the Bologna Children's Book Fair of the East,  but going back to my earlier Hollywood references, it is really more like the Oscars, the Oscars of the Asian children's literature scene. OK, so there won't be any paparazzi, red carpet appearances or even a red carpet for that matter. You won't have style reporters quizzing you about your AFCC fashions ( seriously what do children's writers and illustrators really know about fashion anyway?) and Wolgang Puck will not have a legion of his chefs whipping up a five-star Michelin banquet at the AFCC closing dinner. But that doesn't mean you should skip the festival! You'd be CRAZY if you did. It's a MUST ATTEND event! How are you going to get discovered if you're not willing to be seen, people?

Anyway this year's country of focus is China and I think that's fantastic as it's probably the biggest market for children's books around and it's still growing. Now, if you're like me  --a Chinese person who can't speak a word of language --  don't worry, the sessions will have live translation.

Oh, and this year, I'll be speaking on conducting school visits with my fellow author, Sarah Mousey, aka my biggest competition :). 
As you can see from the pic below, I've decided to shrink her down and made her bio really, really, really small. Hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want to!

You should come to our session so you can hear Sarah speaking in Chinese. (Through a translator  if we have one. If we don't, then some might not understand what Sarah's saying at all. LOL.
Sarah, you'll have to start your own blog to get back at me! :) :) So come on, people, what are you waiting for?  Register now! 

CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER

SCBWI, NBDCS, AFCC, and Children's Publishing in Singapore.

Dinner with Linda Sue Park in 2011

SCBWI Singapore is  relatively small in terms of how big most SCBWI regions are, but in three years it's grown from a core group of six members, including RA Kenneth Quek and coordinator Catherine Carvell, into a group of about 40 members with an average of 17-18 members attending the monthly critique meetings.

In a span of three years, our authors have won awards, published books and have been signed to literary agencies. Even the most jaded publishing type will have to admit that this has been quite a feat for a country where children's publishing is still in its relative infancy.

SCBWI members at AFCC 2012

Speaking with Shamini Flint and Emily Lim at AFCC 2012

On the SWF panel with David Almond, Emily Lim, and John Dougherty

Our  group has been lucky enough to have dined with Linda Sue Park, Wendy Orr, Jacqueline Harvey, and Lisa Yee to name a few. 

Dinner with Ian and Jacqueline, and Lisa Yee

Dinner with Tom and Wendy @ AFCC 2013

Dinner with Jacqueline Harvey

Some of us have been to the Bologna Children's Book Fair and The London Book Fair. We've been asked to speak at festivals and we've attended them too. 

At the Bologna Children's Book Fair

Kenneth dining with Leonard Marcus @ Rules in London

I credit the growth of our group down to two key members: RA Kenneth and  group coordinator, Catherine, our leaders. They are extremely passionate about children's books. Kenneth is also the Deputy Director of the National Book Development Council of Singapore and one of the festivals under his portfolio is the Asian Festival of Children's Content.

Catherine, Sarah, Emma and Kenneth @ AFCC 2012

Mr Rama

Evelyn Sue Wong, Ruhksana Khan and Trevor Kew

Conceived by Mr Rama, Director of the NBDCS, the festival has grown exponentially in recent years. The glitterati of children's literati  that have graced the event include: Wendy Orr, Candy Gourlay, Susanne Gervay, Naomi Kojima, Kathleen Ahrens, Dianne Wolfer, Vivian Kirkfield, Ruhksana Khan, Sarah Odedina,  Helen McAleer, Andrea Pasion-Flores, Helen Mangham, Jayapriya Vasudevan, Cynthea Liu, Alvina Ling, Mio Debnam, Linda Lingard,  Holly Thompson, Leonard Marcus, Steve Mooser,  Norman Jorgensen, Chris, Cheng, Edmund Wee, Yusof Gajah, James Foley, Trevor Kew and many, many more.  It's a great place to meet publishing professionals-- from authors and editors to agents and publishers - and learn more about the industry.

Susanne Gervay @ AFCC 2013

Book signing for Emma's Elephant.

Emma and Wendy Orr

Naomi, Mio and Kenneth @ AFCC 2013

Tuting Hernandez, Myra Garces Bascal, Susanna Goho-Quek, Chris Cheng
and Mr Rama at the joint book launches of ' Water' and 'Beyond Legends, Folktales and Myths'.

The AFCC/Book Council team 2013

CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER FOR AFCC

Now this year's AFCC is going to be bigger than ever before and will span five whole days including a media summit, seminars for parents and teachers, talks, workshops, manuscript and illustration critiques, book launches and much, much more.

Now a few friendly words of advice for any first time authors and illustrators out there who will be attending this MUST-GO-TO event.

1. Don't approach editors, publishers and agents with your manuscripts. This is neither the time nor the place to do so. Instead you can submit your manuscripts or artwork for the First Look and First Pages critiques or the pitch session.


2.  Watch, listen and learn. Watch, listen and learn. Watch, listen and learn.

3.   As the sessions run concurrently, pick and choose your sessions wisely. 

4. Enjoy the festival.