One formative moment in elementary school was when my school librarian brought in author Bruce Coville to speak to my fifth grade class. I was so enamored by the idea that the very person who put words on the page of the book I was reading could also be sitting right in front of me.
In college, I got to meet Judy Blume, and although I could barely string an entire sentence together to explain the paper I wrote about her impact on young adult literature, I was forever changed by meeting her in person. About 5 years ago, my childhood best friend (who was in that same fifth grade class and is now a middle school librarian) asked me to go and see Rainbow Rowell read in Syracuse. Rowell’s book Eleanor and Park is likely one of my favorite teenage love stories to this day. I got to fumble over myself (yet again) and have my personalized book to show for it.
At NYSEC’s 2019 conference, Laurie Halse Anderson wrote a note to a student of mine who devoured her book Twisted. Anderson wrote him a note and snapped a picture with me, giving me more than just a note to pass onto a student who needed it, but also the confirmation that sharing books with young people and connecting with the authors of these books is vital to the profession.
Since becoming an educator, I have pulled many-a-book off the shelf in my classroom and told stories of meeting the author to my students. It has helped me create relationships with my library, with my content, not to mention with my students. It gives another dimension to what we do every day. It says to kids, “Real people write books. You could write a book, too.”
I have always thought that if we were able to meet, talk with, and learn from the people who write the books that we love we would have much different relationships with the pages we turn and understand the tethers we maintain to the books that impact us.
In connecting you with invaluable professional development opportunities year after year, we have realized how important it is for you to connect with authors and experts who help you to bring dynamic content back to your classroom. For that reason, we have prioritized our outreach to New York authors and have given them a new home at the conference to make connections face to face in order to strengthen those connections all year long.
At our 2023 conference, we brought in some New York authors of middle grade and young adult fiction, and non-fiction, and gave you a chance to connect with them, have your own copies of their books personalized, and possibly schedule an author visit for your district. Authors were positioned along vendors in the busy hallway outside the dining room. It was a great new addition to an already buzzing conference experience. But, we wanted more.
This year, we are excited to offer the option for you to hear directly from the authors as a part of Thursday’s lunch program. We hope that this will be a new and exciting way for you to get a wide range of reading and writing connections to bring back to your buildings! These authors write both function and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and across middle grade and young adult. There’s sure to be a title that you would love to feature in your classroom library or an author who can help you pick the perfect book to pass onto your most voracious readers. Here is the link to conference registration. Please consider joining us for this great new addition to the conference!
If you want to hear more from our authors, just catch them at their table in our “Author Alley,” a space right alongside the Oblong Book set-up. Plus, three of our authors are offering workshops. See our list of participating authors below!
Joseph Bruchac
Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning storyteller, musician, and author from the Adirondack foothills town of Greenfield Center. An enrolled citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation and a member of its Elders Council, much of his work focuses on indigenous history and cultural traditions. His more than 180 books in numerous genres range from poetry, picture books, non-fiction, and plays, to such novels as Code Talker, named by Time magazines one of the 100 best books of all time for young adults, and Rez Dogs, a novel in verse listed by NPR as a best book of 2022.His newest titles, which have received starred reviews, are Voices of the People (Reycraft 2022), verse biographies of notable indigenous people over the last 1000 years, illustrated by contemporary Native American art, and Of All Tribes (Abrams 2023), the non-fiction story of the 1969 Native American takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969. In 2023 he was named the first Poet Laureate of his hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY and awarded a major fellowship by the Academy of American Poets.
Nancy Castaldo
Nancy Castaldo has written award-winning books about our planet for over 20 years from New York’s Hudson Valley. Her love of reading and writing outdoors began in her childhood, when she wasn’t searching for frogs, turtles, and salamanders, and climbing trees. Her curiosity led her to study science. As an environmental educator, Nancy combined all of those interests. She still enjoys spending her time exploring in the wild as she did while researching over two dozen award-winning books and many articles.
Her most recent books include, WHEN THE WORLD RUNS DRY for young adult readers and THE WOLVES AND MOOSE OF ISLE ROYALE for middle grade readers. Both are Junior Library Guild Gold Selections. Nancy writes to inform, inspire, and empower her readers about the world around them.
Barbara Dee
Barbara Dee is the award-winning author of fourteen middle grade novels, all published by Simon & Schuster. Her books have been named to many best-of lists, including The Washington Post’s Best Children’s Books, ALA Notable Children’s Books, ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, School Library Journal’s Best Middle Grade Books, and the ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. She is the 2024 recipient of the Rip Van Winkle Award, given by the School Library Media Specialists of Southeastern New York. Her books have earned several starred reviews and appear on numerous state awards lists as well. Barbara is one of the co-founders of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. UNSTUCK is her newest middle grade novel. TEAR THIS DOWN will be published by Aladdin/S&S in February 2025.
Jennifer Dugan
Jennifer Dugan is a writer, a geek and a romantic, who loves writing stories about messy, complicated women and girls. Her debut novel, Hot Dog Girl, was called a “great fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste Magazine, although she is best known for Some Girls Do, her third young adult novel that took Tik Tok by storm. She recently released her adult romance debut, Love at First Set about “the most hilarious disaster bisexuals you’ll ever meet” according to the queen of LGBTQ Reads, Dahlia Adler, for Buzzfeed. Jennifer has also written two graphic novels, Coven and the forthcoming Full Shift with artist Kit Seaton. She is represented by Sara Crowe at Sara Crowe Literary, with film rights being handled by Mary Pender at United Talent Agency.
Emma Kress
Emma Kress is a writer and educator living with her family in Saratoga Springs, NY. A graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University’s Teachers College, she also earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a long-time teacher and was one of four finalists for New York State Teacher of the Year. DANGEROUS PLAY (Macmillan) is her debut novel. You can find her on Instagram (kress.emma), Twitter/X (emma_kress), and TikTok (emma_kress), and at www.emmakress.com
James Preller
James Preller published his first children’s book in 1986 and has consistently worked in children’s publishing — as an author, editor, packager, consultant, and writing instructor — ever since. His many books range from early readers to young adult novels, including: All Welcome Here, The Pirate’s Guide to First Grade, the Jigsaw Jones Mystery Series, Scary Tales, Six Innings, Bystander, Blood Mountain, and many more. He lives in Delmar, NY, and enjoys visiting with young writers and readers in schools throughout the state and country. He blogs and can be contacted at jamespreller.com.
Alysa Wishingrad
Alysa Wishingrad writes fantastical stories for young readers, tales that ask; is the truth really true? Her favorite stories are those that meld the historical with the fantastic, and that find ways to shine a light on both the things that divide and unite us all.
She is the author of Between Monsters andMarvels and The Verdigris Pawn, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
Alysa lives in the Hudson Valley with her family and two demanding rescue dogs and a cat-shaped dog, who are either monsters or marvels, depending on the day.