Keynote Authors

Steven Kellogg, inspired by Beatrix Potter and N.C. Wyeth, loved to draw and tell stories to his younger sisters. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and studied for a year in Florence, Italy. He has illustrated more than 100 books for children and young people and has authored more than 30 books. Among the many books in his repertoire are Pinkerton, Behave!, Is Your Mama a Llama?, How Much is a Million?, The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Pigs, Mike Fink: A Tall Tale, Pecos Bill, Ralph’s Secret Weapon, and Clorinda. In his role as vice-president of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, he has contributed a recent illustrated writing entitled “The Presidential Pet” published in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out (Candlewick, September, 2008). He has won the coveted Regina Medal for his lifetime contributions to children’s literature, the Land of Enchantment Award for Pecos Bill, the Zilveren Griffel Award for Can I Keep Him?, and was a National Book Award Finalist for Pinkerton, Behave! He lives in Stoney Brook, Connecticut, with his wife, Helen, and several pets.

J. Patrick Lewis was born in Gary, Indiana. After receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from the Ohio State University in 1974, he taught economics at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio from 1974-1998. Lewis has written numerous award-winning poetry books for children, such as the Ohio Children’s Book of the Year in 1989 for The Czar and the Amazing Cow, the Coretta Scott King Award nomination in 2000 for Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans, the Golden Kite Award, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in 2001 for The Shoe Tree of Chagrin, the Golden Lamp Book of the Year Award for Swan Song, and the Alice Louise Wood Memorial Prize, Ohioana Awards, 2004 for lifetime achievement in children's literature. Other poetry books demonstrating his remarkable flair for wordplay are The House of Boo, The Brothers’ War: The Civil War in Verse, Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science, and Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes. The World’s Greatest: Poems, is a recent publication. In 2009 he will publish Countdown to Summer: 180 Poems or One for Every Day of the School Year (Little, Brown) and The Underwear Salesman (S&S/Atheneum). Lewis lives in Westerville, Ohio and enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.

Laurie Halse Anderson was born in Potsdam, New York. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1984 with a degree in Languages and Linguistics. She began her career as a freelance reporter, during which time she published her acclaimed award-winning novel, Speak, in 1999 (ALA Top-10 Best Book for Young Adults, New York Times Bestseller List, National Book Award Finalist) that was later adapted into a film in 2004. Among her well-known books for young adults are Fever 1793, (IRA Teacher’s Choice Award), Catalyst (ALA Top-10 Best Books for Young Adults, Barnes & Noble Best Teen Book, 2002), and Prom (IRA Young Adults’ Choice, New York Times Bestseller List). She wrote three picture books, Thank You, Sarah, The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, and The Big Cheese on Third Street. She has authored two book series, Vet Volunteers, including Fear of Falling and Storm Rescue, and Wild at Heart, which includes Fight for Life: Maggi and Homeless: Sunita, She has recently published a young adult novel, Twisted, in 2007. Two additional books, Chains and Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution, are historical novels focusing on the American Revolution, both to be published in fall, 2008. Anderson lives near Philadelphia with her husband, Scot, two teenage daughters, and German Shepherd, Kezziah.
Ned Vizzini began his writing career at age fifteen when he wrote essays for the New York Press while a student at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, New York. After a few of these essays about his personal experiences—trying to talk to girls, his camp adventures, smoking for the first time, and playing Nintendo—were published in The New York Times Magazine as well as the New York Press, he landed a contract with an independent book publisher in Minnesota to write a compilation of the stories. Vizzini published his first book, Teen Angst? Nah…: A Quasi-Autobiography, at age 19, which was chosen as a Booksense 76 Pick. Since then, he has written Be More Chill, and It’s Kind of a Funny Story, both young adult novels about teenage boys dealing with high school issues concerning academics and peer perceptions and acceptance. The rights to It’s Kind of a Funny Story have been purchased by Paramount Pictures who is working on a movie based on the book. Vizzini writes song lyrics as well— “I Wanna Work in an Office” and “I Love Two Girls”. He is currently working on a new book for adult readers. Vizzini lives in Park Slope and is currently teaching math in Fort Greene as part of New York Teaching Fellows.
Bill Konigsberg was born in New York. He received a degree in Literature-Writing at Columbia University in 1994 and his MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. He is an award-winning sports journalist who has written for television, newspapers, wire services, and the internet. He is currently a sports writer for the Associated Press. He won a GLAAD Media Award for his internet article “Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays”, written while an assistant editor at ESPN.com. Not only has he written for ESPN.com, The New York Daily News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Denver Post, and the North Jersey Herald and News, he has also spoken at various functions about what it is like to be openly gay in the sports world. His story was written as a chapter in the book Jocks 2: Coming Out to Play by Dan Woog. Konigsberg’s first novel, Out of the Pocket, was recently published in September 2008 by Dutton Books. He currently lives in Brooklyn Heights with his significant other, Chuck.

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Dr. Alice Snyder - Conference Coordinator, Early Childhood and Elementary Division
Phone: (770) 423-6123       E-mail: clea@kennesaw.edu