Cynthia Leitich Smith is Coming to the UNLV Summit by Rebecca Chatham-Vazquez

5/27/2021

Cynthia Leitich Smith is Coming to the Summit!

The UNLV Young Adult Literature Summit is pleased to feature Cynthia Leitich Smith this year. Smith is an enrolled citizen of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation who landed on the Young Adult scene with Jingle Dancer in 2000, and she’s been changing our lives with her work ever since. As a teacher and writer, she centers young people - particularly Native youth - their lives and their thoughts in all her work.

She has been recognized by YALSA, the ALA, and the Texas Library Association, among several others. This year she was named 2021 Neustadt NSK Laureate (Winner of the NSK Prize for Children’s Literature). Her novels have won numerous awards, including the American Indian Youth Literature award for Hearts Unbroken and the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection for Ancestor Approved.

Ancestor Approved, edited by Smith and published in 2020, is an anthology of stories and poems contributed by several authors (including Smith) who collaborated to create intersecting stories that take place during an intertribal powwow. Thanks to the collaboration of all the contributors, all of the stories weave together to give readers the feeling of the powwow and to show Native joy and the beauty of community, as people from many nations join together in the celebration of their heritage. Read an excerpt here.

Most excitingly, the Heartdrum imprint, a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins, has launched this year with Smith as the author-curator! The imprint focuses on publishing the work of Indigenous writers and illustrators for children and young adults. There are picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and young adult novels. The future of Native American children’s and young adult literature looks very exciting!

For more from Smith, see her interview with Publisher’s Weekly OR this conversation from From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors

3 Comments

Dr. Steve Bickmore
Creator and Curator

Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

Co-Edited Books

Meet
Evangile Dufitumukiza!

Evangile is a native of Kigali, Rwanda. He is a college student that Steve meet while working in Rwanda as a missionary. In fact, Evangile was one of the first people who translated his English into Kinyarwanda.

Steve recruited him to help promote Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media while Steve is doing his mission work.

He helps Dr. Bickmore promote his academic books and sometimes send out emails in his behalf.

You will notice that while he speaks fluent English, it often does look like an "American" version of English. That is because it isn't. His English is heavily influence by British English and different versions of Eastern and Central African English that is prominent in his home country of Rwanda.

Welcome Evangile into the YA Wednesday community as he learns about Young Adult Literature and all of the wild slang of American English vs the slang and language of the English he has mastered in his beautiful country of Rwanda.

While in Rwanda, Steve has learned that it is a poor English speaker who can only master one dialect and/or set of idioms in this complicated language.

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Stay tuned for information regarding the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!