Sponsor a Creator 💛
The PB Rising Stars Collective believes picture book creators deserve meaningful support, thoughtful publishing education, community, and long-term creative growth.
Through the Sponsor a Creator fund, members of the community can help support needs-based scholarships for creators experiencing financial barriers to access.
Help support access inside the Collective.
Contributions support needs-based scholarships for creators pursuing picture books.
Every contribution helps make the PBRS Collective more accessible for creators who deserve support, opportunity, community, and sustainable creative growth too.
Why scholarships matter here.
For years through PB Rising Stars, I’ve watched incredibly talented creators struggle not because they lacked passion, creativity, or dedication, but because sustainable support in publishing can be difficult to access.
Too many creators are trying to build publishing careers while balancing financial stress, isolation, caregiving responsibilities, multiple jobs, lack of industry access, and spaces that were never designed with them in mind.
The PBRS Collective was built to create a more supportive, long-term ecosystem for picture book creators, and scholarships are one part of helping make that possible.
Ebony Lynn Mudd Scholarship for Black Picture Book Creators
Sponsored by Ebony Lynn Mudd, this scholarship was created to help support Black picture book creators pursuing long-term creative growth, publishing education, and meaningful community support inside the PBRS Collective.
This scholarship exists in support of Black creators telling the stories, truths, imagination, joy, tenderness, humor, wonder, culture, and realities they want to bring into the world. Not because Black creators should only be encouraged to tell stories rooted in struggle or trauma, but because every kind of story, voice, artistic vision, and creative dream deserves space to grow, be supported, and be fully seen.
Scholarship opportunities currently include:
Open Door Scholarship
Created to help support picture book creators from historically marginalized communities who may have faced barriers to access, support, publishing education, or long-term creative opportunities.
This scholarship exists because publishing spaces grow stronger, richer, and more meaningful when more creators are supported in telling their stories and building sustainable creative careers.
Still Dreaming Scholarship
Created for picture book creators who have spent 5+ years pursuing this dream while continuing to show up for their creativity, stories, and growth despite setbacks, pauses, rejections, financial barriers, caregiving responsibilities, or life transitions.
This scholarship exists to support creators who are still dreaming, still creating, and still hoping for sustainable support and momentum along the way.
All scholarships are still awarded based on financial need.
Creative Access Scholarship
Created for picture book creators currently experiencing financial barriers that would otherwise prevent access to long-term publishing education, creative support, and community.
This scholarship exists because meaningful creative growth and support should not only be available to creators with financial privilege or industry access.
Scholarships awarded on a rolling basis
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Scholarships awarded on a rolling basis ☆
Apply for a Scholarship
Scholarship applications for the PBRS Collective remain open year-round and are reviewed on a rolling basis as scholarship support becomes available.
Because the Collective is built around long-term growth and ongoing creative rhythms, scholarships may be awarded in different lengths depending on current funding and availability.
Some creators may receive 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, or 12-month scholarships in order to allow meaningful time inside the ecosystem and the opportunity to complete one or more full cycles of the program.
Our hope is not simply to provide temporary access, but to give creators enough time to truly settle into the community, build momentum, receive support, and grow over time.
More about the Collective rhythms and cycles can be found here.
The scholarship application is intentionally designed to be thoughtful but accessible.
This is not about proving your worthiness as a creator or sharing deeply personal financial trauma. We simply want enough information to better understand your creative journey, current barriers to access, and how the Collective could support you at this stage of your publishing path.
A community built on creators supporting creators.
One of the most beautiful things about PBRS over the years has always been the way creators continue showing up for one another.
Whether through mentorship, encouragement, critique, shared knowledge, emotional support, or now scholarship sponsorships, this community has always been rooted in the belief that creators deserve spaces where they can grow without doing everything alone.