Youth Author Luncheon

Friday, February 10
12-2 PM
$55

Youth Author Luncheon: S.K. Ali

S.K. Ali is the author of Saints and Misfits, a finalist for the American Library Association’s 2018 William C. Morris Award and the winner of the APALA Honor Award and Middle East Book Honor Award; and Love from A to Z, a Todayshow Read with Jenna Book Club selection. Both novels were named best YA books of the year by various media including Entertainment Weeklyand Kirkus Reviews. She is also the author of Misfit in Love and Love from Mecca to Medina. You can find Sajidah online at SKAliBooks.com and follow her on Instagram @SKAliBooks, TikTok @SKAliBooks, and on Twitter at @SajidahWrites.

Youth Author Luncheon: Tracy Deonn

Tracy Deonn is the New York Times bestselling and Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award–winning author of Legendborn, and a second-generation fangirl. She grew up in central North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication and performance studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy speaks on panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, reads fanfic, arranges puppy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. She can be found on Twitter at @TracyDeonn and at TracyDeonn.com.

Youth Author Luncheon: Ebony LaDelle

Ebony LaDelle is a marketing pusher by day, storyteller by night. Born in Michigan, awoken at Howard University, and cultivated in Brooklyn, Ebony can usually be found searching for her next live concert, scouting out the latest food craze to try, or being the undisputed Mom Friend of any group. She cohosted Why Not YA?, a @Belletrist and @EpicReads monthly video series where she interviewed authors in the young adult space. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social @EbonyLaDelle.

Youth Author Luncheon: Raúl The Third

Raúl The Third is a New York Times bestselling and three-time Pura Belpre award-winning illustrator, author, and artist living in Boston. Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge was awarded one of the year’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2021 from the New York Times and the New York Public Library. He is currently adapting his World of Vamos! books into an animated television series with Silvergate Media and Mercury Filmworks. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican-American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Learn more at raulthethird.com

Youth Author Luncheon: Kelly Yang

Kelly Yang is the New York Times bestselling author of Front Desk, winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature, Parachutes, and Three Keys. Front Desk also won the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud, and has earned numerous other honors including being named a best book of the year by Amazon, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and NPR. Learn more at KellyYang.com.

Adult Author Luncheon

Saturday, February 11
12-2 PM
$55

Adult Literature Author Luncheon: Valerie Burns

Valerie Burns is the Agatha Award-nominated author of screenplays, children’s books, and cozy mysteries, including the Baker Street Mysteries, the Mystery Bookshop series, the Dog Club Mysteries, and the RJ Franklin Mysteries. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, she currently resides in Georgia just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee with her poodles. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. She can be found online at VMBurns.com.

Adult Literature Author Luncheon: Hiromi Goto

Hiromi Goto is an emigrant from Japan who gratefully lives on the Unceded Musqueam, Skwxw7mesh, and Tsleil Waututh Territories. She’s written Chorus of Mushrooms, The Kappa Child, along with three novels for children and youth, a book of poetry, and a collection of short stories. Shadow Life is her first graphic novel.

Adult Literature Author Luncheon: Michelle D. Hord

Michelle D. Hord is a creative storyteller and media executive. A proud graduate of Howard University, she is the president of Hope Warrior, Inc., and former vice president of creative content and talent management at NBC Universal. Michelle has spent more than three decades in network news and entertainment. In a career that has spanned from television control rooms to corporate board rooms, she has consistently sought opportunities to inspire creativity in all its various forms. In 2018, she founded Gabrielle’s Wings, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving children of color in vulnerable communities the kind of experiences, access to programs, and exposure that she is unable to now give her late daughter, Gabrielle.

Adult Literature Author Luncheon: Mia P. Manansala

Mia P. Manansala is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.

Adult Literature Author Luncheon: Karen Tei Yamashita

Karen Tei Yamashita was born in Oakland, California; her parents were both survivors of incarceration at the Topaz internment camp during World War II. Yamashita is the author of eight books traversing short story, memoir, and novel – all published by Coffee House Press – including: Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Brazil-Maru, Tropic of Orange, Circle K Cycles, Anime Wong, and I Hotel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award, and the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. Her most recent publication, Sansei and Sensibility (2020), is a collection of buoyant and inventive stories where Yamashita transfers classic tales across boundaries and questions what an inheritance – familial, cultural, emotional, artistic – really means.

Author Luncheons