We examined associations between preschoolers' levels and growth rates of emergent writing skills and their later reading abilities, including whether being bilingual altered such associations. This study involved 243 preschoolers in 95 early childhood classrooms, who were measured on emergent writing skills across four time points and later word reading and reading comprehension abilities. Results of growth curve modeling showed that children's initial levels of name writing, letter writing, and picture writing, but not consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word spelling, predicted their later reading abilities in both word reading and passage comprehension. The growth rates of letter writing, CVC word spelling, and picture writing skills from preschool to Grade 1 predicted both reading outcomes; the growth rate of name writing skills predicted later word reading only. Being bilingual did not alter the associations. Our findings provide evidence that regardless of children's language status, children's initial emergent writing skills and growth in these skills during early childhood are important in their later acquisition of reading. [This is the online first version of an article published in "Reading and Writing."]