Conferences & Events

If you're organizing conferences, exhibits, awards, or other noteworthy events, we'll help you spread the good news. Send your announcements to Rachel L. Smith at rsmith@hbook.com.

November 2008

The Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University will once again hold its annual children’s book festival and young adult conference on November 1 in Huntsville, Texas. Keynote speakers include Printz winner John Green, Kathi Appelt, Patrick Jones, and Caldecott winner David Small. More information can be found at http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_www/BookFestival08.htm.

Keene State College's thirty-second annual Children’s Literature Festival will take place November 1 in Keene, New Hampshire. Featured speakers include Steven Kellogg, Andrew Glass, Eric A. Kimmel, Carolyn Coman, Rob Shepperson, and Jerry Pinkney. For more information, visit www.keene.edu/clf.

Framingham State College, in Framingham, Massachusetts, will be hosting its annual Children's Literature Festival (formerly the McCord Festival) on November 6. The 2008 festival luminary is Barbara Lehman, author-illustrator of The Red Book (2004, Caldecott Honor Book), Museum Trip (2006), Rainstorm (2007), and Trainstop (2008), among others. For a flyer, including a mail-in registration form, contact Dr. Evelyn Perry, Children's Literature Festival Coordinator, at eperry@framingham.edu.

The ninth Kaleidoscope Conference will be held November 6–8 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Kaleidoscope Conferences celebrate literature created for children and young adults and aim to heighten the awareness and appreciation of the creative process through interaction with authors, illustrators, publishers, producers and performers. Presenters will include Linda Bailey, Elizabeth Bicknell, Betty Birney, Janell Cannon, Sneed Collard, Wallace Edwards, Gayle Friesen, Julie Lawson, George Littlechild,  Betsy and Ted Lewin, Lois Lowry, Ben Mikaelsen, Michael Morpurgo, Beverley Naidoo, Allen Say, Bill Slavin, Eileen Spinelli, Janet Stevens, Shaun Tan, Ian Wallace, Melanie Watt, Werner Zimmermann and Jack Zipes.  More details can be found at www.kaleidoscopeconference.ca.

Come experience YALSA hospitality in Nashville, Tennessee, at the first-ever Young Adult Literature Symposium, November 7–9. The symposium's theme is "How We Read Now," and will feature an optional preconference on illustrated materials for teens, a genre luncheon that will give attendees the chance to meet and mingle with authors, and two days of programs and paper presentations. See all the details, plus housing and registration rates, at www.ala.org/yalitsymposium.

The 2008 Literacy for All conference will take place in Providence, Rhode Island, November 16–18. For more information about the conference, visit www.lesley.edu/crr/lfa_index.html.

In honor of the new collection George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends by James Marshall, there will be a panel discussion about the author and humor in children’s books. The discussion will take place on November 18 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Roger Sutton, editor in chief of The Horn Book Magazine, will moderate the discussion, joined by authors and illustrators Susan Meddaugh and David Wiesner, children’s literature expert Anita Silvey and Cambridge school librarian Susan Moynihan. The event is co-sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Company, the Cambridge Public Library, The Foundation for Children’s Books, The Horn Book, Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information, please call 617-349-4409; TTY 617-349-4421 or check www.cambridgepubliclibrary.org.

The tenth annual Jewish Children's Book Writers' Conference will take place November 23 at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York. Featured speakers are associate agent Michelle Andelman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, publisher David E. Behrman of Behrman House, executive editor Michelle Frey of Alfred A. Knopf and Crown Books for Young Readers, editor Larry Rosler of Boyds Mills Press, director Joni Sussman of Kar-Ben Publishing, and illustrator’s agent Melissa Turk of Melissa Turk & The Artist Network. Award-winning author Johanna Hurwitz will give opening remarks, and the day will include sessions on publishing and writing in Israel, the Sydney Taylor Book Award and Manuscript Competitions, and individual consultations with editors and agents from past conferences. The registration form is available for download at www.92y.org/content/pdf/jewishchildrensbookwriters.pdf. Call (212) 415 5544 or e-mail library@92Y.org for additional information or to request the form by mail.

March 2009

The sixth annual Western Washington University Children's Literature Conference will be held on March 7 in Bellingham, Washington. Brian Selznick, Joan Bauer, Kadir Nelson, and Sara Pennypacker will be the featured speakers. For more information, visit www.wwuclc.com.

Ashley Bryan will be the Charlotte Huck endowed speaker at the thirteenth annual Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Literature festival March 13–14 at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. Other featured speakers include Pat Cummings, Kristine O’Connell George, Kerry Madden, Leonard Marcus, Linda Sue Park, Susan Goldman Rubin, and Amy Timberlake. For more information, visit www.redlands.edu/childrensliteraturefestival.asp.

Reading the World XI, a conference celebrating multicultural literature for children and young adults, will take place March 28–29 at the University of San Francisco School of Education. Keynote speakers include Theresa Breslin, Michael Cart, Sarah Ellis, Francisco Jimenez, Marilyn Nelson, Rosemary Wells, and Junko Yokota. For more information, visit www.soe.usfca.edu/institutes/reading_world/index.html or contact Barbara Hood at rtwconf@socrates.usfca.edu, (415) 422-5110 or Beverly Vaughn Hock at bevvhock@earthlink.net, (650) 342-2817.

April 2009

The thirty-fourth annual Youth Services Section’s Spring Conference will take place on April 3 at The Inn on the Lake in Canandaigua, New York. The keynote speaker will be author Linda Sue Park, winner of the 2002 Newbery Award. This day-long event will include a choice of twelve workshops for librarians specializing in services for children and teens. Edgar® Award–winning author Vivian Vande Velde will provide the luncheon speech. For further information, visit the New York Library Association website at www.nyla.org.

The 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture will take place in Clinton, Tennessee, on April 18. Author Walter Dean Myers will deliver the lecture, which will be hosted by the Langston Hughes Library of the Children’s Defense Fund Haley Farm with the support of The University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences, Knoxville, the University of Tennessee’s Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, the Knox County Public Library, and the Clinton Public Library. Information about reserving tickets will be posted when available on the ALSC website at http://www.ala.org/alsc.

The Arne Nixon Center will host a Beatrix Potter conference, co-sponsored by the Beatrix Potter Society, on April 18–19 at the Fresno State campus, featuring expert speakers on Beatrix Potter, a musical play based on The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, and the Arne Nixon Center’s annual Secret Garden Party. Registration information and other details will be available soon at www.arnenixoncenter.org.

Frostburg State University in Maryland is hosting the twenty-seventh annual Spring Festival of Children's Literature on April 24–25. This year they are “Celebrating America Through Children's Literature,” with Kadir Nelson, Doreen Rappaport, Matt Tavares, and Gennifer Choldenko as featured speakers. For more information, contact clc@frostburg.edu.