The second in my series of interviews with the judges of the SCBWI Bologna Illustration Gallery has posted over at Cynsations. This one is with the fabulous Laurent Linn, who, in addition to being a great Art Director, and all-around wonderful guy, is going to add Author/Illustrator to his list of credits later this spring when his young adult book Draw the Line debuts.

In addition to discussing the importance of the Bologna Book Fair to Art Directors and other publishing professionals, we talked about the using illustration in books for readers of all ages - not just picture books. I hope you'll hop on over to check it out!

Today I got home from #NY16SCBWI - the annual Winter Conference of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) - and I can't wait to write a bit more about that later this week. Until then I wanted to share my recent interview with Illustrator Doug Cushman. Among other things, we talked about the qualities he feels are important for an artist to have in order to be a successful illustrator for children's books. 

This interview is part of a series highlighting the SCBWI presence at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. You can check out the interview with Doug, as well as other interviews in the series, at the Cynsations Blog.

There's an outstanding line-up of agents, editors and art directors presenting at the 2nd bi-annual SCBWI Europolitan conference. The theme of the conference is diversity in children's literature. This is an outstanding opportunity for authors, illustrators, and author/illustrators to get one-on-one feedback about their work, and learn from some of the leaders in the field of publishing for children and young adults.

For more information, or to register, click here!