‟Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”
—WALTER DEAN MYERS

Where Are the People of Color in Children's Books?
New York Times, March 15, 2014

#KWELI26
PROGRAM SCHEDULE

REGISTER NOW

Saturday, April 11, 2026

8:45am - 8:50am
WELCOME by Laura Pegram

9:00am - 10:00am

A. Publishing, Community, & Culture Track
Pitch Perfect: The Anatomy of a Strong Hook
In this craft-focused workshop, children’s book writers Emily Sun Li and Ariel Vanece break down what makes a story hook truly compelling and how to translate a manuscript into a clear, concise, and engaging pitch. Drawing on their experience mentoring Simmons University MFA in Children’s Literature students through live pitch panels, they’ll unpack the key elements that make industry professionals lean in—including how to establish stakes efficiently, align tone and diction with a project, use comp titles strategically, clearly communicate the who/what/why of a story, and use “mic drop” moments to make a concept instantly memorable. Using real sample pitches (shared with permission) and guided analysis, participants will learn how to identify what’s working, strengthen what’s not, and leave with practical tools to sharpen their queries, elevator pitches, and submission materials.
Featuring: Emily Sun Li and Ariel Vanece

B. Novels / Memoir Track (YA & MG)
ON CRAFT
Revising the Novel-in-Verse
Arriel Vinson won the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe New Talent Award for UNDER THE NEON LIGHTS. Arriel will lead a craft talk on editing the novel in verse. She will discuss where our lines hold power, . . . “dealing with line breaks visually or editing with your ear, looking at what the language is doing and whether it is propelling the poem forward,” AND MORE. During the session, Arriel will share examples from THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo, as well as her new and forthcoming titles: UNDER THE NEON LIGHTS (Book 1) and IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE (Book 2). Arriel will also provide a writing prompt.
Featuring: Arriel Vinson

C. Illustrated Books/Nonfiction Track
ON CRAFT
First Look: The Ones Who Came Before
Art Director Aram Kim joins author Kevin Maillard and illustrator Sibu T.P. to give the audience a first look at their forthcoming picture book THE ONES WHO CAME BEFORE (Roaring Book Press, October 13, 2026). Aram will share select text and spreads from the book and discuss some of the gentle editorial “pushes” along the way to this stunning book.
Featuring: Kevin Maillard & Sibu T.P.; moderated by Aram Kim

10:15am - 11:15am

A. Publishing, Community, & Culture Track
The Librarians
In this breakout session, the audience will watch a brief clip from the documentary THE LIBRARIANS and then join three avid readers and educators in a discussion on book banning. Marialuisa Monda (New York Society Library), Njeri Gachathi (Bank Street School for Children) and Ana Oropeza-Parra (Librarian, curator and practitioner) will talk about ALA’s recent statement on The Right to Read Act and their creative approaches to expanding the minds of all children.
Featuring: Njeri Gachathi & Ana Oropeza-Parra; moderated by Marialuisa Monda

B. Novels / Memoir Track (YA & MG)
Collaborations
Stet or Not? Author/Editor 101 with Patricia Park and Phoebe Yeh
Join Crown/Random House Children's Books editor Phoebe Yeh, and her YA author, Patricia Park, as they discuss publishing, editing, and marketing—from Patricia's debut, IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND OTHER CONFESSIONS OF ALEJANDRA KIM to her second YA, WHAT’S EATING JACKIE OH? and her third, AMBROSIA LEE DROPS THE MIC (forthcoming April 28, 2026). What was that first conversation like? What was the editorial process like? Did Patricia always agree with Phoebe’s notes? How did they figure out how to work together? Was working on the second and third YA novels “easier?” Patricia and Phoebe will give you the inside scoop on the way they work together from start to finish. (Yes, it doesn’t end after the book is off press).
Featuring: Patricia Park & Phoebe Yeh

C. Illustrated Books/Nonfiction Track
Finding, Growing and Preserving Your Voice in Picture Book Making
Have you been wanting to get to your next level in storytelling and need the space to consider what that might be? Have the demands of real life book delivery left you with the feeling that there's something more you'd like to say or give? Has treading the line between collaboration and inference dimmed your spark?

In this workshop we’ll examine the power of emotional register, practice and iteration and the role of learning and exploration in our visual storytelling. We’ll go over design basics and hierarchies, materiality, playing with elements such as composition, value, color, line, texture, scale, light and shadow, repetition and pattern. Our goal is to leave this workshop with the bones of our next story and with an expanded toolkit, excited and charged about the next steps in our picture book journeys.

This workshop is beneficial for:
Working artists who use traditional or digital media.

Prerequisites and Advanced Preparation:

Please bring along one picture book that impacts you emotionally as well any 5 pieces of visual reference from photos or artwork that inspire you. Lastly, a scribble of an early childhood memory -- your own or one you might have inherited.
Featuring: Cozbi A. Cabrera

11:30am - 12:45pm

Lunch

1:00pm - 1:30pm

KEYNOTE with Derrick Barnes

1:45pm - 2:45pm

A. Publishing, Community & Culture Track
ON COMMUNITY
Community Healing: Breaking Silence, Reclaiming Voice
In 2025, the documentary SUGARCANE, co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, was nominated for an Academy Award in the best documentary category. The film speaks to the colonial silences that exist in our broader society, and about the attempted cultural genocide and abuse at Native boarding schools. In the opening chapter of Brian Lee Young’s debut YA novel, SHARDS OF SILENCE, the great grandmother pleads with her great-grandchild at his going away dinner: “You don’t have to go to that school, sha’awéé. You can stay here and go to high school in Navajo.” Másání Mildred does not want him to attend a boarding school. She knows that Native boarding schools were designed as Pratt intended “to kill the Indian in him and save the man.” Brian Lee Young’s grandmother was taken to one of these boarding schools as a child. During this breakout session, we will look at Young’s most personal story yet.
Featuring: Brian Lee Young & Laura Pegram

B. Novels / Memoir Track
ON CRAFT
Telling Stories In Verse
Using techniques like found text, erasure, and short-form verse, writers will explore how narrative, voice, and imagery come together on the page. Whether you’re new to poetry or an experienced writer, this session offers creative tools to experiment, remix language, and build powerful story-driven poems. Infante is contributor to SING ME A STORY: SHORT STORIES IN VERSE BY LATINE AUTHORS edited by Aida Salazar.
Featuring: JP Infante

C. Illustrated Books/Nonfiction Track
ON CRAFT
Differently Abled Characters in Picture Books
In this breakout session, we will look at creating differently abled characters in a picture book and showing their path to self-awareness and self-reconciliation. In Razan Abdin’s SPLENDIDLY SAWSAN—Sawsan, a wonderfully chaotic dreamer, navigates her neurodivergence with self regulating practices. While in MR. CHOW’S NIGHT MARKET by Emily Li—Mr. Chow, the owner of the neighborhood grocery store, works through his night owl tendencies and chronic fatigue in an imaginative story exploring the origin of Taiwanese Night Markets. These authors have stories that explore social emotional learning through reconciliation and adaptation. Recognizing difference as a fact instead of as a problem. They will discuss the role of differently abled characters in children’s literature, and how their stories advocate for mental wellness and self compassion.
Featuring: Razan Abdin & Emily Sun Li; moderated by Ariel Vanece

3:00pm - 4:00pm

A. Publishing, Community & Culture Track
First Pages Clinic: Voice and Audience
Writers often struggle with questions of voice and audience. As editors, we have found that a rather wordy picture book manuscript, for example, might actually be more fitting for a middle grade audience if the author did X, Y and Z. In this session, editors will give direct X, Y and Z feedback on the first 250 words of a submission. They will be selected at random from attendees’ previously submitted materials and shared on screen for all to read.
Featuring: Autumn Allen & Phoebe Yeh; moderated by Arely Guzman

B. Novels / Memoir Track
ON CRAFT
Specificity of Language and Place with Kathy Belden
Jason Reynolds said that “I read SALVAGE THE BONES by Jesmyn Ward about once a year. I’ve probably read it 15 times. To my palate, it’s the closest thing to a perfect novel.” So we invited Kathy Belden, Ward’s long-time editor, to join us on the 15th anniversary of Salvage the Bones. One thing Belden thinks about a lot is specificity. That's what attracts her to many projects. That's what drew her into those first lines of Salvage the Bones. Specificity of language, of place. During this breakout session, she will talk about how every book of Jesmyn's has asked something different of her, as her editor. Belden is currently reading Jesmyn’s debut novel for teens and she will talk about that, too. We’ll begin this breakout session with a brief reading from SALVAGE THE BONES by Jesmyn Ward.
Featuring: Kathy Belden

C. Illustrated Books/Nonfiction Track
ON CRAFT
Researching and Writing the Historical Picture Book
In A NIGHT FOR THE RICE CARRIERS by Carmen Rubin, “a young girl celebrates the courage and cleverness of her ancestors and the generations of resistance they inspired.” Carmen Rubin is a historian and children’s literacy advocate. In this breakout session, she will discuss the research on West African rice carriers and the real rice carriers, Yaya and Paanza, with educator Njeri Gachathi.
Featuring: Carmen Rubin & Njeri Gachathi

4:15pm - 5:15pm

Publishing | Real Talk
In March 19 issue of PW Daily, we read that “Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, has been closed, resulting in layoffs and moves.” In addition, “Sourcebooks is partnering with author, educator, and social impact strategist Lavaille Lavette on a new children’s imprint.” Autumn Allen, senior editor at Barefoot Books, joins Patricia Park’s agent and editor, Sarah Burnes (Gernert & Company) and Phoebe Yeh (Crown Books, Random House), for a Real Talk conversation on Publishing in this moment.
Featuring: Sarah Burnes & Phoebe Yeh; moderated by Autumn Allen

5:30pm - 6:00pm

KEYNOTE with Patricia Park

6:00pm

Closing Announcements

Sunday, April 12, 2026

10:00am - 11:00am

A. Workshop
Imagining Beyond the Page
We'll examine recent adaptations including the opening chapters of OPERATION SISTERHOOD in comparision to the opening scenes of the stage script. Then we'll use writing and theatre prompts for participants to start thinking through ideas for their own work. We'll also discuss some potential considerations for adaptation and share resources. Participants are encouraged to bring a chapter or a picture book manuscript to work with.
Featuring: Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich

B. Workshop
YA Novel Revision
Autumn Allen’s sophomore novel, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, is “an unforgettable, heartwarming, hilarious coming-of-age story about faith, family, all kinds of love and a Black Muslim teen pursuing an ordinary goal in an extraordinary time.” In this session, Allen will share an excerpt from her forthcoming novel to illustrate the editorial process and strategies for revision you can apply to your novel-in-progress.
Featuring: Autumn Allen

C. Workshop
Novel in Verse : Look at What Language is Doing
As a follow-up to Saturday’s craft talk, Arriel Vinson will lead a workshop on revision. Arriel will discuss where our lines hold power, . . . “dealing with line breaks visually or editing with your ear, looking at what the language is doing and whether it is propelling the poem forward,” AND MORE. During the session, Arriel will share examples from THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo, as well as her debut novel, UNDER THE NEON LIGHTS (Book 1) and forthcoming title, IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE (Book 2).
Featuring: Arriel Vinson

11:15am - 12:15pm

KEYNOTE with Joshua Bennett

12:15pm - 1:15pm

Lunch

1:30pm - 2:30pm

A. Workshop
Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction
Writing from life can be a tricky business. There are people to protect, faulty memories of events, and the pitfalls of self-censorship and self-aggrandizement. Two Truths recognizes our lives are too rich not to write about, and our imaginations are too strong to ignore. In this class, we will discuss literary techniques for overcoming emotional writing blocks and write by drawing on memory and its gaps, the truth and lies of our lives.
Featuring: Bushra Rehman

B. Workshop
Anatomy of a Scene
There are books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, like SALVAGE THE BONES by Jesmyn Ward and THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead. At Kweli, we recently studied the scenes of Black Girlhood within THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DUBOIS by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. At the end of a strong scene, there is usually a shift in character and/or circumstance. During this breakout session, Sarah Burnes, Honoree’s long-time literary agent, will analyze one or two of the school scenes with Ailey in Love Songs and share a writing prompt with the audience.
Featuring: Sarah Burnes & Laura Pegram

C. Workshop
Writing Black Girlhood
When DéLana Dameron John passed away in November 2025, she had already done so much: highly regarded poet, writer, development officer for cultural institutions, and equestrian. As a literary ancestor, we must listen more deeply to what her whole life has said: our stories matter, our communities must be centered, our histories are worthy of preservation, and we can believe a dream so hard that we can make it true to live in and share. In this workshop, we will read a short sample from REDWOOD COURT and consider how we might use it to inspire middle school students (and beyond) to understand the urgency of telling the stories of their people.
Featuring: Raina J. León

2:45pm - 3:45pm

A. Workshop
Long Way Down, The Musical
Playwright Garlia Cornelia Jones will share three scenes from the musical adaptation of LONG WAY DOWN by Jason Reynolds and discuss tension, propulsion and pace. We will start with the “Rules Come in Three,” scene from the musical and then segue to the Rule of Three in writing, knowing the rules before you break them AND MORE.
Featuring: Garlia Cornelia Jones

B. Workshop
Writing Myths and Folklore into Picture Books
How can we incorporate myths and folklore into our picture book writing? From classic retellings to creative reinterpretations, there are many different approaches to weave traditional myths and lore into fresh, original stories. In this workshop, we will examine recent picture book mentor texts that draw inspiration from folklore from around the world. We will discuss a variety of successful forms and narrative structures, along with helpful ways to make the stories your own while honoring the traditional material. Participants are encouraged to bring everything from initial ideas to finished manuscripts to work on during this session. A guiding quote for this workshop comes from the wise Angeline Boulley, the #1 NYT bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter: “I write to preserve my culture. I edit to protect it.”
Featuring: Emeline Lee

C. Workshop
Queer Romantasy: Anatomy of a Scene
Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston wrote that “there are years that ask questions and years that answer.” THE MAP THAT LED TO YOU by Ella McLeod is a queer romantasy inspired by Caribbean folklore. Join the author in a talk about pirates and mermaids and “stories that hold answers and ask questions.” McLeod will be joining us virtually from London.
Featuring: Ella McLeod