{"id":586,"date":"2014-05-12T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:40:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:40:51","slug":"save-date-announcing-8th-annua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Save the Date: Announcing the 8th Annual Kidlitosphere Conference!"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Original post by Jen Robinson on KidLitosphere Central<\/a>:<\/i><\/p>\n

The 8th annual Kidlitosphere Conference, aka KidLitCon, will be held October 10th and 11th at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria<\/a> in Sacramento, CA!<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

KidLitCon is a gathering of people who blog about
\nchildren\u2019s and young adult books, including librarians, authors,
\nteachers, parents, booksellers, publishers, and readers. Attendees share
\n a love of children\u2019s books, as well as a determination to get the right
\n books into young readers\u2019 hands. People attend KidLitCon to talk about
\nissues like the publisher\/blogger relationship, the benefits and
\npitfalls of writing critical reviews, and overcoming blogger burnout.
\nPeople also attend KidLitCon for the chance to spend time face to face
\nwith kindred spirits, other adults who care passionately for children\u2019s
\nand YA literature.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme for KidLitCon is: Blogging Diversity in Young Adult and Children\u2019s Lit: What\u2019s Next?<\/b><\/p>\n

Members of the Kidlitosphere have been talking about the
\nneed for more diversity in children\u2019s books for several years now,
\nstarting back when Paper Tigers<\/a>
\n launched with a view of discussing multicultural children\u2019s literature.
\n There was outrage within the community when the cover of Justine
\nLarbalestier\u2019s LIAR was whitewashed<\/a>,
\n and discussions of other books followed. More recently, children\u2019s and
\nyoung adult authors have used blogs, Tumblr, and Twitter to make a much
\nlouder demand for more diversity in publishing, through the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign<\/a>. Other bloggers are listening and responding. Pam Coughlan just announced that the focus of this year\u2019s 48-Hour Book Challenge at MotherReader<\/a> will be on reading diverse books. The Cybils organization has been combing through past shortlists, to come up with lists of diverse titles<\/a>. The pictures and posts on this topic are too many to count. And that\u2019s a fine thing.<\/p>\n

What we would like to do with this year\u2019s KidLitCon (along
\n with our usual goals) is discuss what book bloggers can do to make a
\nmeaningful difference in increasing diversity in children\u2019s and young
\nadult literature. This year\u2019s keynote speaker will be Mitali Perkins<\/b><\/a>,
\n an author whose focus has long been on \u201cbooks between cultures for
\nyoung readers\u201d. Among other things, Mitali will talk about how bloggers
\ncan be agents of change in the conversation about diversity in
\nchildren\u2019s and young adult literature. Shannon Hale<\/b><\/a>, who has written eloquently on the need for writing non-neutral characters<\/a>, and who helped launch the Great Green Heist Challenge<\/a>, is also expected to participate in the conference via Skype.<\/p>\n

We will talk about other issues of interest to children\u2019s
\nand YA book bloggers, too. But it is also our hope to make a bit of
\nnoise on behalf of diversity in children\u2019s literature. It is past time
\nfor that.<\/p>\n

The Tsakopoulos Library Galleria is a beautiful meeting
\nspace, located in California\u2019s State Capitol. We are finalizing details
\non a room block at a nearby hotel. Registration information and a call
\nfor session proposals will be published soon. While we do not have the
\nfinal schedule yet, we are planning to have sessions starting
\nmid-morning on Friday and going through Saturday, with evening events
\nFriday and Saturday nights.<\/p>\n

We hope that you will mark October 10th and 11th on your
\ncalendar, and start thinking about how you would like to contribute to
\nthe conversation on children\u2019s and young adult book blogging. Please
\nhelp us to spread the word. Thank you!
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

Tanita Davis<\/b> and Sarah Stevenson<\/b>, Finding Wonderland<\/a>
\nJen Robinson<\/b>, Jen Robinson\u2019s Book Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Please help by spreading the word! Be a fan<\/a> on Facebook! Follow us<\/a> on Twitter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Original post by Jen Robinson on KidLitosphere Central: The 8th annual Kidlitosphere Conference, aka KidLitCon, will be held October 10th and 11th at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,34,47,18,19,10],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-diversity","tag-ethnicity-and-ya-literature","tag-happenings","tag-kidlitcon","tag-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8041,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/8041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}