It is my turn to write the weekly post. I have been sitting on developing information for the last several weeks. As many of you know, I directed a young adult literature conference at Louisiana State University. One of the big draws for moving to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was the opportunity to direct the Gayle A. Zeiter Literacy Development Center. Historically, among the good work the center provides, it has hosted a one day spring conference on Children’s and Young Adult Literature.
The tradition will continue.
The single day spring event will be March 5, 2016 and will serve as an introduction to the 2016 Gayle A. Zeiter Young Adult and Children’s Literature Conference that will be held the week of June 13 to June 17, 2016. The event will hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the College of Education, and the Department of Teaching & Learning along with a variety of partners that will be revealed along the way to June.
There is a big announcements today and more to come at the annual conference of the National Council of Teacher of English (NCTE) and the ALAN Workshop. Most of the keynotes are in place. Of course, the link to the conference at the top of this blog will always have updated material and provide links as they are developed. If you are interested in participating as someone who conducts a workshop or a breakout session, we will have a link for proposals in early December. We will also continue to outline registration information for academics, librarians, teachers, parents, or, dare I say it, any reader of great young adult or children’s literature. Before too long, my website and the Zeiter Center webpage will have links to how you can join in with the fun. The blog will also highlight the novels of our participating authors periodically.
The March event will feature the wonderful Jim Blasingame as an academic keynote. He has been a mentor and a friend since I was in graduate school. He is an engaging presenter who has forgotten more about young adult literature than I pretend to know. The authors who are committed for the March date are Bill Konigsberg and Tom Leveen. Imagine how excited I was last week when Bryan Gillis referenced them both in his blog posting. Both of them have books that engage adolescents.
Here is the introduction to the Keynotes:
The academic keynotes will be Donalyn Miller, Steven T. Bickmore, Sophia Sarigianides, and Alan Sitomer. You should explore their webpages and read their academic work. The blog will be discussing more of what they have to offer over the next few months.