Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA (keynote address for Publishing Perspectives Conference: YA: What's Next?)

I'm honored to be giving the keynote address at the upcoming Publishing Perspectives Conference, "YA: What's Next?," which will be held this coming Wednesday in the Scholastic Building in New York City.

My talk, "Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA," will feature illustrations by my husband-collaborator, William R. Sulit.  These images have been modeled with 3-D software and amplified by small human interventions, including the lovely "real" hand shown here, which was donated to the cause by my niece, Miranda.

If any of you wish to attend this half-day event—which will feature Ellie Berger, Carl Kulo, David Levithan, Eliot Schrefer, Mara Anastas, Jennifer Brown, Andrew Losowsky, and many more—let me know.  I might just have a discount coupon for you.

Opening words from my talk:

In the days following the colossal storm called Sandy, stories held us captive, terrifying aerial views, the news that began to leak in from friends.  Trash bags strapped on like shiny boots, brand-new adults walked through rising fumes and fresh flotsam, looking for signs of ordinary life.  Heartbroken by saturated eggplants and devastated garden fruits, they crouched to gather seeds.  Asking What can we do?, they collected blankets, baked tins of lasagna, emptied their personal libraries of books and took their spontaneous gifts into darkened neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Rutgers student who lost both her parents to a capsized tree and will now raise three younger siblings on her own, was reaching into some impossible well of suddenly-now-adultness to help others suffering the ravages of weather.