Saturday at #alaac25 was filled with more engaging panels and opportunities than any three people, let alone one, could do at the same time, but the common thread through many was themes of empowerment and resilient joy.
The event “AuthorFest: How and Why Librarians Should Support Independent Authors,” saw moderator Charmaine Ashby interview panelists Gladys Bell & Andrea Jamison—both spoke on how independent authors provide a pathway for more diverse stories in libraries, and the importance in particular of authentic voices giving full life to such stories. They discussed how big name publishers will have limits in the scopes of the stories they tell, and how exploring stories from independent authors can mean exposure to non-main-stream narratives their collections may be missing.
I, along with Mavasta Honyouti, Phoenix Ward, and Tony Weaver, Jr, were presenting authors at the event, along with the local, kid-created Jubilee Voices Publishing House. Jubilee School students created the group when they saw a lack of properly told black history in the books they had available, so they decided to create and self-publish their own.
Kid power was also a focus in the fiction acted out during the Scholastic “Readers Theater,” where five children’s lit authors performed dramatic readings from each others’ novels. Stories included a girl who helps the spirits of her deceased family, a group of kids exploring the forbidden outdoors of a post-apocalyptic world, a Punjabi 12-year-old whose family is met with hatred for being interfaith, a teen athlete in the Berlin 1936 Olympics who decides to help the resistance against the Nazis, and a gay teen coping with the trauma of his mother’s near-death illness. All authors’ novels greatly engaged the audience, though in terms of acting, Ryan La Sala arguably stole the show, evoking raucous laughter from the audience with his highly animated performances of a grandfather ghost among other roles, and his inclusion of props like a wig and crab-themed sunglasses he brought for his fellow readers.
The day also saw an interview with Dr. Carla Hayden, the most recent Librarian of Congress who, last month, was abruptly fired by Donald Trump with no explanation at the time. Dr. Hayden spoke on how the administration later claimed she was “putting inappropriate books in the library for children,” despite the fact that the Librarian of Congress, of course, does not run a library that children use. She expressed even greater concern for how others are being affected by hers and similar sudden firings.
Dr. Hayden, however, sounded anything but defeated. Her sharp, tactful answers drew both joyful laughs and roaring applause from the audience. When asked what gives her hope, she said the thousands of librarians in front of her. When asked about something as basic as her least favorite foods, she tied it back to earlier topics, saying that although she doesn’t like brussel sprouts, that doesn’t mean that her cohost can’t eat them, because diversity is about choices. In her final question, she was asked if the word “love” did not exist, how would she let people know that she loved them? She answered that she would say “thank you,” but she is glad the word does exist. “I love you, I love you,” she said to the audience, who rose to cheers and applause. “Thank you.”
William Stieglitz (he/him/his) is a children’s book author with Paw Prints Publishing who also writes local journalism. This will be his first year attending ALA Annual, where he will be an EMIERT AuthorFest panelist. His upcoming early-readers, the Rachel and Abby books, center on two Jewish-American sisters as they solve the mysteries of the adult world, and take inspiration from how his own family, while celebrating Judaism in many different ways, would find the most meaning in the time they spent together. He is looking forward to meeting with and hearing the stories of others at the conference, and especially values how librarians work both to educate and to create an environment that really is for everyone.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
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