Western Washington University will host four award-winning children’s and young adult book authors and illustrators from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Western’s Performing Arts Center in Bellingham, WA as part of Western’s 14th Annual Children’s Literature Conference.
The conference brings together teachers, librarians, readers, and writers to celebrate children’s literature and reflect on how children’s books shape the experience of growing up.
This year’s speakers include Laurie Halse Anderson, Christian Robinson, Matt Phelan and Rita Williams-Garcia.
Registration is open and available through the conference website at wwuclc.com. The cost to attend is $175. Discounts are available for students, para-professionals, retired teachers, and Western employees.
The day will include author and illustrator presentations, book sales, autographs, and a question-and-answer panel.
This year’s featured speakers:
Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author of over 30 books including “Speak” and the “Seeds of America” Trilogy. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, she has received numerous national and state awards as well as international recognition. In 2009, Anderson received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.”
MadWomanintheForest.com
Illustrator Christian Robinson is the recipient of several awards, most recently the prestigious 2016 Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for the Newbery Medal winning picture book “Last Stop on Market Street.” Some of Robinson’s other popular work includes “Harlem’s Little Blackbird,” “Rain” and “Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker.” Robinson’s most recent picture book is the New York Times bestseller “School’s First Day of School” by Adam Rex.
Theartoffun.com
Author and illustrator Matt Phelan won the 2010 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for his graphic novel “The Storm in the Barn.” Phelan is also the illustrator of many books for young readers, such as “Flora’s Very Windy Day” by Jeanne Birdsall and “The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron, and has been nominated for five Will Eisner Awards. His most recent work is a retelling of the classic tale “Snow White.”
Mattphelan.com
Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of One Crazy Summer, which is a Newbery Honor-winning novel as well as winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award Finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. Other popular books of hers include “P.S. Be Eleven,” “Gone Crazy in Alabama,” “Jumped,” “No Laughter Here” and “Every Time a Rainbow Dies.”
Ritawg.com
To find out more information about the conference, please visit www.wwuclc.com.