Like many of you, I have been extremely busy trying to figure out Zoom, Google Meets, WebEx and all of the ins and outs of virtual teaching. I have registered for NCTE and the ALAN workshop, but it is finally becoming real as the books start to arrive. Attendees who registered and paid for a shipment of books find that the books really do show up. They have started to flood Facebook and Twitter with pictures of their books in an homage to past workshop. In the past, people arrive at the hall early Monday morning to pick up their book boxes and many open the boxes and set them on their tables.
Steve's Stack of Books
A Slideshow of Books as Attendees Prepare for the 2020 ALAN Workshop
Do you see your stacks?
The Program for the 2020 ALAN Workshop
Angie Thomas
Samira Ahmed
Eric Gansworth
The 2020 ALAN Workshop Program
One of the most important parts of the ALAN Workshop is the chance to hear from authors that you have never heard of before. At a workshop I found Padma Venkatraman (Climbing the Stairs), Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (The Smell of Other People's Houses), Chris Lynch (Inexcuseable), Jeff Zetner (The Serpent King), Adriana Mather (Haunting the Deep), Varian Johnson (The Parker Inheritance), Kristin Bartley Lenz (The Art of Holding on and Letting Go) and so many more.
Do yourself a favor and listen to people who are entirely new to you. I promise, you will find new friends.