About the Conference

Penny Kittle teaches writing at Plymouth State University. She taught in public schools for 34 years and learned two essential things: all students will build independent reading lives of joy, curiosity, and hunger when given agency; and teachers who write with their students generate community and creative power. Penny is the author of nine books, including Micro Mentor Texts, Book Love, and Write Beside Them, which won the James Britton award from NCTE. She co-authored two books with Kelly Gallagher: 4 Essential Studies and the best-selling 180 Days. She co-authored two books with Donald Graves. For six years she was a featured columnist for Voices from the Middle, an NCTE journal. Penny is the President of the Book Love Foundation where we believe a love of reading is built on engagement, equity, and the power of classroom teachers.

Byron Graves is Ojibwe and Lakota and was born and raised on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where they played high school basketball. When they aren't writing, they can be found playing retro video games, spending time with their family, or cheering on their beloved Minnesota Timberwolves. Rez Ball was their debut novel; Medicine Wheels is their second book.

Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor winning middle grade novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science, and just about everywhere she looks. Learn more about Rajani and her books at www.RajaniLaRocca.com and Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, and LinkedIn. She also co-hosts the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast.

#1 New York Times Bestselling author, Jennifer Nielsen, was born and raised in northern Utah, where she still lives today with her family. She is the author of The Ascendance series, beginning with THE FALSE PRINCE; the TRAITOR’S GAME series, the historical novels, ICEBERG, A NIGHT DIVIDED,  WORDS ON FIRE, LINES OF COURAGE and several other titles. She loves chocolate, old books, and lazy days in the mountains. For as far back as Jennifer can remember, she has shared her brain with imaginary characters. She figures it’s okay if she talks to them as she’s working on her stories, as long as they don’t start talking back.

Janet Sumner Johnson is an award-winning author of both picture books and middle grade novels. Her debut picture book, Help Wanted: Must Love Books, won the 2021 CLEL BELL Read Award and was nominated for the Children’s Choice Book Awards in Colorado and Washington. The first book of her middle grade mystery series, The Winterton Deception: Final Word (2023) received starred trade reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist, was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, and was nominated for state awards in New Hampshire, Maine, Indiana, and South Carolina. She lives in Utah with her husband, three kids, and her dog. Visit her online at janetsumnerjohnson.com.