And the Mentorship Goes to…

This year we had 18 incredible submissions of Middle Grade and Young Adult novels. Our panel of judges explained that there were some really great stories in the mix, and they had quite a time narrowing down the list. 

Sheela Chari, our mentor, was given the top three applicants and explained that it was hard choosing, as all three were strong and held merit. 

With that, a drumroll please…

Heather Shumaker is this year’s mentorship winner! 

Heather is a Traverse City-based author and proud member of SCBWI. She writes books for both children and adults, concentrating on Middle Grade. Her books include: THE GRIFFINS OF CASTLE CARY (Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2019), a slightly spooky MG adventure, and SAVING ARCADIA, a Michigan Notable Book about Great Lakes land conservation. She’s also the author of two early education books IT’S OK NOT TO SHARE and IT’S OK TO GO UP THE SLIDE. Heather co-coordinates the Up North Shop Talk and is a staunch defender of books, children, nature, and libraries.

As Heather said in her application, “I’ve come to realize that every critique and reader reaction is a gift. I appreciate frank feedback and serious brainstorming. I’d like to work with someone who understands the tender responsibility that comes with kidlit, and seeks to push a story until it’s worthy of a child’s time.”

Heather will work with Sheela from April 10th to November 20, 2026. After their time together, she will have an opportunity to submit to an acquiring editor using one of SCBWI-MI's "golden tickets," which means no slush pile! 

The first-place runner up is Kelsey Gross, who will receive one free entry to the 2026 Critique Carousel. 

Anita Fitch Pazner is the second-place runner up, who has won a $25 gift card to the SCBWI bookstore. 

Thank you so much for our incredible judges for their hard work, and congratulations to all of our applicants! It was a tough competition this year!

Picture book authors get ready - submissions for the 2027 Picture Book Mentorship will open in January, 2027!

Jessica Zimmerman

SCBWI-MI Mentorship Coordinator 

2026 Novel Mentorship

With January right around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about New Year’s Resolutions. For those of you out there who are Middle Grade and Young Adult novel writers, boy do I have a suggestion for you!!

Hi! 

I’m Jessica Zimmerman, and I’m the new(ish) Mentorship Coordinator for SCBWI-MI. I took the reins from the incredible Jay Whistler, and am so grateful for the guidance and materials that she left for me as I transitioned into her former role! This year I’ve learned so much about the uniqueness of our Michigan mentoring program, and I’m so excited to share everything I’ve learned with you…right here in this blog! 

First, let’s talk about how the mentorship program works. 

The program is on a three year rotation for genre: picture books, illustration, MG/YA novels. 2025 was an illustration year, with the incredible Penelope Dullaghan serving as the mentor to Marisa Korovesis. The program runs from April to November, so the two of them worked over eight months exchanging materials and feedback four times. 

As Marisa says, “This has been an absolutely thrilling experience. I have learned so much and gained a lot of knowledge and confidence from Penny. It's truly been one of the best experiences of my life.”

   

The 2026 mentorship will be a MG/YA novel mentorship with Sheela Chari! Sheela is the award winning author of several critically acclaimed novels, including KARTHIK DELIVERS, THE UNEXPLAINABLE DISAPPEARANCE OF MARS PATEL series, FINDING MIGHTY, and VANISHED! She holds an MFA from New York University and is a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts' MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. You can read more about Sheela right here on the Mitten, where she describes more about her work and background. 

In October I attended her SCBWI-MI webinar on Points of View and I must say, whoever gets to work with her is going to be sooooooo lucky. Sheela’s pretty awesome. 

So now, let’s talk about what you need to do to apply to work with her!

The mentorship website has TONS of information to help you get ready, including formatting details, an example submission, and a robust FAQ, plus my email if you have lingering questions. I’ll put it at the bottom of this post, too, for good measure🙂. 

One of my favorite things about the mentorship program is that EVERYONE gets SOMETHING!

So, here are the prize opportunities:

The winner receives the mentorship, plus a golden ticket submission to an agent or editor. The first and second runners up both receive gold form feedback from the mentor. In addition: The first-place runner-up will receive one free entry to our annual Critique Carousel for any project and the second-place runner-up will receive one $25 gift card for the SCBWI Member Bookstore. But even if you aren’t one of the top three, YOU STILL GET FEEDBACK!

Each submitted manuscript will be judged by three super-secret, super-awesome, anonymous judges. Every single person who registers will receive a paragraph of feedback from each judge, related specifically to the judging criteria: Appropriateness of Style, Development of Plot, Character Development, Pacing, and Overall impression/Originality. 

You read that right: three, unique, specific reviews of your work. What a great chance to improve your writing! Seriously, you don’t want to miss this.

I’m so excited to be coordinating this program and can’t wait to see the manuscripts that come in! Registration for the mentorship opens on January 2nd, 2026 and closes on January 11th. There are only 20 spots, so get those manuscripts ready!!!

See you soon, and Happy New Writing Year! Let’s help you reach your goals!

Questions? Email Jessica at scbwi.mi.mentorship@gmail.com

Jessica Zimmerman (she/her) is a mom, author, educator, and empowerment coach. She loves reading, writing, running (or walking), hugging trees and being in the sunshine. She holds degrees in education from Central Michigan University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and has been a public school teacher for twelve years. She was the Michigan World Language Elementary Teacher of the Year in 2024, and currently serves as the Mentorship Coordinator for SCBWI-Michigan.

Jessica’s first book, Drinking from the Fire Hose: A Survival Guide for First Year Teachers was independently published in 2024 and is available on Amazon. She recently completed a project with the Cereal City Sunrise Rotary Club, writing a picture book called Ben’s Diabetes Journey to raise awareness about childhood diabetes, which will be independently published soon. You can join her monthly at Willard Public Library in Battle Creek, Michigan for Bilingual Storytime with “Maestra Zim.”

Jessica’s life goal is to help everyone love themselves, love their people, and love the planet. You can learn more about her at jessicazimmermanbooks.com.

Meet 2026 SCBWI-MI Novel Writing Mentor Sheela Chari

Editor's Note: The application period for the 2026 SCBWI-MI novel mentorship with author Sheela Chari opens January 2, 2026 (with the winner announced in April). Today's you can get to know a little bit more about our mentor, Sheela.

What made you decide to become an author?

From a young age, I loved escaping into stories, whether it meant reading them or making up my own. Books were important, and so were the places where I interacted with them — in my own room and in libraries at school and in town. One of my fondest childhood memories is taking the bus to the Iowa City Public Library and meeting my best friend there to check out tons of books!

In college, I became more serious about making writing my career and life work after taking an intro fiction workshop. That class changed my life. From then on, I took more classes and went on to get my MFA. It would be another 10 years after that before I published my first novel. But certainly I credit the library, the hours of alone time to think up stories during my childhood, and those classes in college that opened the world of fiction writing for me.

What do you like best about writing novels?

I love that first stage when an idea is fresh and you are just discovering it, following it along, and somehow this idea knows where it’s going and you have to give it room, energy, and enough unconditional, non-judgmental love. That’s the best! The second best is when the draft is all done, everything is in place, and the revision process is where you are chiseling away to get to the story within. I can spend days and days in this phase of revising and refining, until I get to the last draft.

What do you like least?

Oh, the idea stage, the revision stage, the end stage. Does that sound like what I like the best? That sounds about right. Writing is hard work. It’s hard because the joy and the uncertainty are so tightly bound together.

Describe a typical writing day.

I wish I had a typical day. I’ll describe the one I aspire to, and maybe this happens about half the time: I sit down at my desk in the morning around 9:30 am and I write for two hours. I divide this into thirty-minute sessions with a few minutes of break in between. After that I tend to the rest of the day: lunch, picking up my daughter from school, errands, meals, etc. If I’m lucky, I get another hour in the afternoon or in the evening. I try to exercise in the mornings before I write, and/go for a walk after lunch.

I also teach in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program at VCFA, so there are weeks when I’m working on packets from students, which means reading and commenting on their creative pages, critical essays, and reading annotations. Since teaching is how I learn best, these packet weeks really do inform my work as a writer. 

When you're reading for pleasure, what features of a book typically impress you the most?

I love epistolary writing — letters, emails, texts, any kind of “found” documents and multiple formats of writing all smashed together. I love a beautifully constructed graphic novel. Those are some formats I tend to gravitate towards, though I do like conventional prose novels, too. In terms of content, I enjoy historical fiction, humor, and any kind of plot-twisting, atypical, surprising storytelling. I adore emotionally rich characters who are unconventional, with big feelings, and who despite it all strive ahead.

What inspires you?

A great way for me to fill the well is a day spent in the city (any vibrant city) eating good food, visiting a museum, and hearing a music concert.

What aspects of being a novel mentor are you most looking forward to?

I love to teach! Teaching and learning go hand in hand, so I look forward to engaging with another writer’s world, and collaborating with them to find the story, and guide their characters on a set of interactions, reflections, and actions that best serve that story. It’s often a process of trial and error, built on mutual trust. Teaching has also taught me to be a good listener, to learn how to attune to the needs of the student or mentee who is trusting me with their work.

Can you tell us about any upcoming projects?

I’m working on a number of projects and hope to share them with the world soon! :)

2026 Novel Mentor Announcement

Start getting your manuscripts ready...we have a 2026 Novel Mentor!!

Sheela Chari is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including KARTHIK DELIVERS, an NEA Read Across America book, and THE UNEXPLAINABLE DISAPPEARANCE OF MARS PATEL series, based on the Peabody Award-winning mystery podcast. Her other titles include FINDING MIGHTY, a Children's Choice Award finalist; and VANISHED, an APALA Children’s Literature Honor Book and Edgar Award finalist.  Sheela holds an MFA from New York University and is on faculty in  Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in New York. 

Mentorship applications will open in January of 2026. Applicants will submit a synopsis and ten pages of their manuscript. An anonymous team of judges will select the top three applications, and Ms. Chari will choose the mentorship recipient! The winner will work with Ms. Chari over the course of 2026 and receive a  "Golden Ticket" to submit their mentorship project to an acquiring editor or agent. 

The September Critique Carousel is a great time to get feedback on your work to prepare for this incredible opportunity! You can get more information about the Critique Carousel here.