Note: Session descriptions below

10:00-10:50, General Session

Welcome and Meet the Summit author-respondents: Brendan Kiely, Gae Polisner, and Sonia Patel

The authors will begin by sharing their latest projects and what they are noticing in YA today. As Summit respondents, they will be attending sessions throughout the day, gathering midday and at the end of the day to be in conversation about the sessions they attended, inviting attendees to discuss implications.

Concurrent Session 1, 11:00-11:40, 40 min.

1A. Chea Parton, University of Texas; Rob Costello, author: Horror as a Lifeline: How Rural Identities Survive through YA Horror

1B. Dani Karchorsky, University of Nevada; Taylor Kessner, University of Texas Arlington: Historical Young Adult Graphic Novels: Lifelines Between the Past and Present

1C. 1. Keola Birano, Washington State University: Kaona--Creating Secret Lifelines

2. Jennifer Kagan, Oswego State University: Rez Dogs: Lifeline Book Imitates Life on the Reservation

1D. Ritu Radhakrishnan, SUNY Oswego: Shared Stories: YA as a Resource for Multi-Generational Immigrant Families

Concurrent Session 2, 11:50-12:30, 40 min.

2A. Gae Polisner, author; Erin Bronstein, Oklahoma State University; Nikki Bylina-Streets, librarian; Chea Parton, University of Texas; Sarah Donovan, Oklahoma State University: Girl-on-Girl Hate, Judgment, and Disrupting Shame

2B. Leilya Pitre, Southeastern Louisiana University: Discovering and Creating Lifelines While Teaching Academic Skills: Drawing Strength from YA Characters

2C. 1. Rachel Wolney, Washington State University: Moving Beyond Representation and Inclusion: Teaching Disability Studies as a Critical Lens for Understanding All Bodies in Young Adult Literature

2. Coley Lehman, Columbia University Teachers College: Graphic Novels as a Lifeline: How a Graphic Novel Book Club Helped Teachers Find Joy and Community During the Most Challenging Months of Their Careers

2D. Tracey Hodges, University of Alabama: Expanding Emojis: Using Graphic Novels for Writing and Social-Emotional Learning in Middle School

12:40-2:00, General Session

Respondent conversation about sessions 1 and 2: Brendan Kiely, Gae Polisner, and Sonia Patel

Break-out rooms for small group discussion and networking

Moderator: Sarah Fleming

2:00-3:00, Break

3:00-3:20, General Session

Welcome CCSD teachers joining us with Andrea Katona

Moderator: Sophie Ladd

3:20-4:10, General Session

Author Panel Session: ABsolutely NORMAL: How YA Literature Depicting Diverse Mental Health Experiences Can Create Community and Save Lives

Nora Shalaway Carpenter, author; Francisco X. Stork, author; Sonia Patel, psychiatrist and author; Marcella Pixley, English educator and author; Rocky Callen, behavioral coach and author; Ebony Stewart, international touring poet and author

Moderator: Cindi Koudelka

Concurrent Session 3, 4:20-5:00, 40 min.

3A. Reem Faruqi, author; Veera Hiranandani, author; Dr. Gayatri Sethi; Jasmine Kaur: Multi-faith Belonging: Stories in Verse

3B. Holly Sheppard Riesco, Megan Yates Grizzle, and Megan Chaffin-- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville: Porous Borders: Negotiating Broader Social and Community Awareness through Children’s and YA’s Literature in Teacher Education Programs

3C. 1. Melanie Bell, Washington State University: The Hate U Give Little Infants F’s Everybody: Youth Agency and Resistance in Ya Literature

2. Alexandria Perez, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi: Censorship in Children’s Literature: Eliminating Lifelines

3D. Sophie Ladd, UNLV: Exploring Nonfiction text with 2022 Orbis Pictus Award Winning Literature-Yes, these meet standards

Concurrent Session 4, 5:10-5:50, 40 min.

4A. Maya Prasad, author;Priyanka Taslim, author: Lifelines for Underrepresented Readers Through Joy and Escapism

4B. Networking room if you wish to meet with a colleague and need a breakout room

4C. Sharon Kane, State University of New York at Oswego: Analyzing Peritext and Epitext of “Pandemic Novels” by YA Authors

4D. Joann Williams, UNLV: Children’s Literature: Student Voice in Argumentative Writing: Unleashing WP While Winning the R.A.C.E (grades 3-8)

6:00-7:00, Closing celebrations and conversation: Brendan Kiely, Gae Polisner, Sonia Patel

Moderator: Sarah J. Donovan

Please share your experiences and feedback: https://forms.gle/q67vsSZpVFQ41eQB6

Session Descriptions

1A, Chea Parton, University of North Texas & Rob Costello, Author

Horror as a Lifeline: How Rural Identities Survive through YA Horror: Realistic rural YA is hard to come by; however, rural places/people are often found in YA horror, offering the genre as a potential lifeline for rural students. This presentation will discuss an exploratory content analysis of YA horror, paying attention to how rural people and places are depicted.

1B, Dani Kachorsky, University of Nevada, Las Vegas & Taylor Kessner, University of Texas Arlington

Historical Young Adult Graphic Novels: Lifelines Between the Past and Present: In this presentation, the researchers demonstrate how teachers can combine and utilize the Opportunities for Practice Framework (Kessner & Harris, 2022) with a social semiotic approach to multimodality (Kress, 2010) when teaching young adult historical fiction and nonfiction graphic novels build lifelines between the past and present.

1C.1, Keola Birano, Washington State University

Kaona - Creating Secret Lifelines:This presentation will share the author’s pursuit to create a young adult novel that contains kaona or hidden meaning for Hawaiian children that rarely see themselves in literature

1C.2, Jennifer Kagan, Oswego State University

Rez Dogs: Lifeline book imitates life on the Reservation: Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac takes place on a reservation during the pandemic. As professor and tutor coordinator at the Onondaga Nation School, there are many parallels, and connections. Students at the Nation School will read the book, and journal. We will look at the entries with a transactional lens.

1D, Ritu Radhakrishnan, SUNY Oswego

Shared Stories: YA as a Resource for Multi-Generational Immigrant Families: This presentation will explore YA (and Picture Books) that focus on the shared stories and individual histories of immigrant families. Using the theoretical foundation of oral histories and community languages and literacies , this presentation will highlight the significance of varied historical perspectives in learning history. While many stories of multi-generation immigrants overlap when examining experiences in America, individual histories are multifaceted and difficult. Such stories can offer perspectives that help future generations understand their histories.

2A, Gae Polisner, Author Macmillan Publishing; Nikki Bylina-Streets, middle school librarian; Chea Parton, teacher educator and rural YA scholar; Erin Bronstein and Sarah Donovan, Oklahoma State University

Girl-on-Girl Hate, Judgment, and Disrupting Shame: Join us, women recently connected through Polisner's powerful novel, Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me -- in a frank and genuine, and ultimately healing, conversation about how we might help girls learn to lift and support one another along the path to adulthood. Let's talk about shame and female desire. Let's talk about how to empower girls via empathy and understanding -- and, yes, via story and literature -- so we might do better going forward.

2B, Leilya Pitre, Southeastern Louisiana University

Discovering and Creating Lifelines While Teaching Academic Skills: Drawing Strength from YA Characters: This session discusses teaching critical analytical skills by drawing on life experiences of YA verse novel characters struggling with identity, acceptance, loss, and mental health, but finding hope in the midst of despair. The audience is invited to participate in a poetry writing exercise and create a poem using Jamboard.

2C.1, Rachael Wolney, Washington State University

Moving Beyond Representation and Inclusion: Teaching Disability Studies as a Critical Lens for Understanding All Bodies in Young Adult Literature: All bodies can be seen as disabled, marginalized, or separated from the “norm” in some way. In this presentation, a university educator shares an approach from disability studies that focuses on all bodies in young adult literature as well as provides a bibliography of related research and a reading list.

2C.2, Coley Lehman, Columbia University, Teachers College

Graphic Novels as a Lifeline: How a Graphic Novel Book Club Helped Teachers Find Joy & Community During the Most Challenging Months of Their Careers: Graphic novels are often lifelines for students, but many teachers have limited experience reading these powerful texts. This presentation discusses the rationale for teacher book clubs in general & shares graphic novels that impacted teachers & students. Participants will receive an annotated bibliography of YA graphic novels, with a social justice focus.

2D, Tracey Hodges, University of Alabama

Expanding Emojis: Using Graphic Novels for Writing and Social-Emotional Learning in Middle School: In this interactive presentation, teachers will learn to use graphic novels to improve writing and social-emotional learning for adolescent students. Teachers will examine examples of mentor texts and methods to implement for teaching writing with those texts; and, explore social-emotional learning through graphic novels with applications for middle school students.

Panel, Nora Shalaway Carpenter, Author, Candlewick Press with Francisco X. Stork, YA author; Sonia Patel, psychiatrist and YA author, Marcella Pixley, English educator and YA author; Rocky Callen, behavioral coach and YA author; Ebony Stewart, international touring poet and author

ABsolutely NORMAL: How YA Literature Depicting Diverse Mental Health Experiences Can Create Community and Save Lives: Acclaimed authors and educators will discuss the importance of literature featuring authentic characters struggling with mental health. There is a critical need for educators to expand classroom practice so that students struggling with mental health can find reflections of their own experiences and empowerment to emerge from stigma and stereotype.

3A, Reem Faruqi, HarperCollins author; Veera Hiranandani; Dr. Gayatri Sethi; Jasmin Kaur

Multi-faith Belonging: Stories in Verse: A South Asian interfaith diaspora panel on multi-faith belonging featuring Middle Grade authors Veera Hiranandani and Reem Faruqi, verse novelist Gayatri Sethi, and Young Adult author Jasmin Kaur on poetry.

3B, Holly Sheppard Riesco, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Megan Yates Grizzle, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville; Megan Chaffin, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville

Porous Borders: Negotiating Broader Social and Community Awareness through Children’s and YA’s Literature in Teacher Education Programs: Using children’s and YA lit as a catalyst, three researchers challenge the way traditional, authoritative literacy is viewed within elementary and secondary teacher education programs and within the secondary classroom itself.

3C.1, Melanie Bell, Washington State University

The Hate U Give Little Infants F’s Everybody: Youth Agency and Resistance in YA Literature:This presentation will share an examination of social justice and resistance in YA literature and how it both encourages youth agency and models ways to act against systematic oppression. Excerpts will be shared from specific popular texts and feedback encouraged from session participants.

3C.2, Alexandria Perez, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

Censorship in Children's Literature: Eliminating Lifelines: Cultural books are lifelines for children who otherwise do not see themselves in media. Culturally diverse literature helps children to feel recognized, understood, and valued by society. However, due to government and school censorship, some populations are being denied this experience. Foundations of diversity, cultural responsiveness, and censorship will be discussed.

3D, Orbis Pictus Committee-Sophie Ladd, UNLV

Exploring Nonfiction text with 2022 Orbis Pictus Award Winning Literature-Yes, these meet standards: This session will explore Orbis Pictus literature and identify ways that high interest nonfiction parallel literacy standard. Participants will engage in handons exploration of text and address literacy/content area standards through discussion and application.

4A, Maya Prasad, author with Disney-Hyperion & Priyanka Taslim, Author, Simon & Schuster

Lifelines for Underrepresented Readers Through Joy and Escapism: Joyful stories of acceptance, adventure, romance, or daring are a lifeline to underrepresented readers who crave a form of escape from the difficulties of their everyday lives and/or feel othered by the media they consume. In this panel, two debut authors will discuss the need for joyful representation, their own inspiration, and the challenges of getting these stories into the hands of readers.

4B, Join this session as a networking/social room.

4C, Sharon Kane, State University of New York at Oswego

Analyzing the Peritext and Epitext of "Pandemic Novels" by YA Authors: What lifelines have YA authors held onto during pandemic times? Analyzing peritext (parts within books but beyond the main text, such as an Author’s Note) and epitext (things related to but outside books, such as interviews) can help us ponder vulnerability, resilience, and relationships between authors’ lives and their literature.

4D, Joann Williams, UNLV, SNWP Teacher Consultant

Student Voice in Argumentative Writing: Unleashing WP While Winning the R.A.C.E: How do teachers of writing help students to meet the expectations of standards based writing while still foster creativity and student voice? This session will explore approaches to argumentative writing that align to standards all the while developing authenticity and engaging students in the process of becoming writers themselves.