Kweli: The Color of Children’s Literature Conference 2022
Join us March 25 – 27th, 2022 for an incredible weekend with top editors, agents, authors and illustrators in the children’s book publishing world. The #Kweli22 conference is an excellent opportunity for BIPOC writers and illustrators to learn, get inspired and network with others in the industry. Newbery award winner Jerry Craft met New Kid’s future editor, Andrew Eliopulos, at our #Kweli16 conference, and Printz Award winner Angeline Boulley met Tiffany Liao, the future editor of Firekeeper’s Daughter, at #Kweli19. You might meet your future editor at #Kweli22!
The #Kweli22 conference features a stellar lineup of authors and illustrators, including award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors and illustrators Carole Boston Weatherford, Candice Iloh, Aya Khalil, Rajani LaRocca, Darcie Little Badger, Kekla Magoon, Andrea Y. Wang, and Brian Young.
Inspiring keynote conversations with Cozbi A. Cabrera, Michaela Goade, and Renee Watson will bookend a day of panels on Saturday, March 26th. On the last day of the conference, Sunday, March 27th, there will be keynote conversations between New York Times bestselling authors Nnedi Okorafor and Ibi Zoboi, Daniel Jose Older, and Mariko Tamaki.
The program runs in four tracks:
Publishing, Community & Culture—with panels on solidarity among creators of color, developing an authorial platform, and submissions.
Novels & Memoir—including workshops on the crafts of character, plotting, contemporary world-building and fantasy world-building.
Picture Books & Nonfiction—where experts will offer insights into picture books, chapter books, graphic novels and nonfiction.
Intensives—with in-depth sessions on craft and form for picture book authors and YA novelists.
Throughout the day, writers and artists will have the opportunity to get their work seen, considered, and critiqued by the many agents and editors attending the conference—a useful step for creators who want to develop their craft and make connections within the industry. Join us in lifting up underrepresented voices.
In the weeks leading up to #Kweli22VIRTUAL, we will have a series of pre-conference events with award winning authors, including Tracy Deonn, Darcie Little Badger, AND MORE.
Image credit: E.B. LEWIS from DADDY SPEAKS LOVE by LEAH HENDERSON.
INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS
See the Presenter Information Webpage for full bios.
AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS
Samira Ahmed (Author, Hollow Fires)
Autumn Allen (Author, Step on Board)
Angeline Boulley, (Author, Firekeeper’s Daughter)
Abhi Alwar, (Illustrator, Hamsters Make Terrible Roommates)
Hala Alyan (Author, The Arsonists’ City)
Gloria Amescua (Author, Child of the Flower-Song People, Luz Jimenez, Daughter of the Nahua)
Susannah Aziz (Author, Halal Hot Dogs)
Schuyler Bailar (Author, Obie is Man Enough)
Winsome Bingham (Author, Soul Food Sunday)
Carole Boston Weatherford (Author, Unspeakable:The Tulsa Race Massacre)
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond (Author, Blue, A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky)
Mahogony L. Browne (Author, Chlorine Sky)
Cozbi A. Cabrera (Author/Illustrator, Me and Mama & My Hair is a Garden)
Hayan Charara (Author, The Three Lucys)
Susan Muaddi Darraj (Author, Farah Rocks New Beginnings)
Tracy Deonn (Author of Legendborn)
Zetta Elliott (Author, Dragons in a Bag)
Adriana M. Garcia (Illustrator, Where Wonder Grows)
Michaela Goade (Author / Illustrator, Berry Song)
Camille Gomera-Taverez (Author of Hidden Spirits)
Xelena Gonzalez (Author, Where Wonder Grows)
Leah Henderson (Author, Daddy Speaks Love & The Magic in Changing Your Stars)
Joanna Ho (Author, Eyes That Kiss in the Corners)
Nasugraq Rainey Hopson (Author, Eagle Drums)
Wade Hudson (Author, Defiant, Growing Up in the Jim Crow South)
Paula Chase Hyman (Author, Keeping it Real)
Candice Iloh (Author, Break This House & Every Body Looking)
Harshita Jerath (Author, The Leaping Laddoo)
Kristi Jewel (Author, What is Juneteenth?)
Kevin Johnson (Author, Cape)
Aya Khalil (Author, The Night Before Eid)
Adib Khorram (Author, Kiss & Tell)
Rajani LaRocca (Author, Red, White and Whole)
Minh Le (Author of The Blur & A Lotus For You)
Emeline Lee (Author, Bonnie’s Rocket)
Kristen R. Lee (Author, Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman)
Darcie Little Badger (Author, A Snake Falls to Earth)
Amina Luqman-Dawson (Author, Freewater)
Kekla Magoon (Author, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People)
Magaly Morales (Illustrator, Pura’s Cuentos, How Pura Belpre Reshaped Libraries With Her Stories)
Yuyi Morales (Author / Illustrator, Bright Star & Dreamers)
Marilyn Nelson (Author, Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life)
Lissette J. Norman (Author, Platanos Go With Everything & My Feet Are Laughing)
Daniel J. O’Brien (Author / Illustrator, The Carnival Prince)
Laura Obuobi (Author, Black Gold)
Nnedi Okorafor (Author, Akata Woman & Binti)
Daniel José Older (Author, Star Wars: The High Republic & Ballad & Dagger)
Julian Randall (Author, Pilar Ramirez and the Escape From Zafa)
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Author, Operation Sisterhood & It Doesn’t Take a Genius)
Andrea Rogers (Author, Man Made Monsters)
Kim Rogers (Author, Just Like Grandma)
Rhonda Rhumani (Author, Umm Kulthum, Star of the East)
Isabel Roxas (Author / Illustrator, The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens)
Aida Salazar (Author, Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter)
Shirin Shamsi (Author, Zahra’s Blessing, A Ramadan Story)
Sheetal Sheth (Author, Bravo Anjali & Always Anjali)
Traci Sorell (Author, Powwow Day & She Persisted: Wilma Mankiller)
Lisa Stringfellow (Author, A Comb of Wishes)
Tasha Spillet (Author, I Sang You Down From the Stars)
Brittany Thurman (Author, Fly)
Elisabet Velasquez (Author, When We Make It)
Tricia Elam Walker (Author, Dream Street & Nana Akua Goes to School)
Andrea Wang (Author, Watercress & The Many Meanings of Meilan)
Renee Watson (Author, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water)
Anne Wynter (Author, Everybody in the Red Brick Building)
Brian Young (Author, Healer of the Water Monster)
Ibi Zoboi (Author, Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler & The People Remember)
EDITORS & AGENTS
Caite Arocho (Marketing Coordinator, Random House Children’s Books)
Jennifer Baker (Senior Editor, Amistad / HarperCollins)
Joanna Cardenas (Senior Editor, Kokila Books/Penguin)
Jessica Echeverria (Editor, Lee & Low)
Abigail Frank (Associate Agent, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates)
Wendy Gu (Literary Agent, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates)
Arely Guzman (Kweli Contributing Editor)
Serene Hakim (Agent, Ayeshe Pande Literary)
Connie Hsu (Executive Editor, Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan)
Cheryl Klein (Editorial Director, Lee & Low Books)
Arthur A. Levine (President and Editor-in-Chief, Levine Querido)
Tiffany Liao (Executive Editor, Zando’s Young Reader’s Initiative)
Alvina Ling (VP and Editor-in-Chief, Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Meghan Maria McCullough (Associate Editor, Levine Querido)
Madelyn McZeal (Editorial Assistant, Levine Querido)
Sydnee Monday (Associate Editor, Kokila Books/Penguin)
Molly O’Neil (Agent, Root Literary)
Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel (Agent, Full Circle Literary)
Elizabeth Stranahan (Associate Editor, Crown Books for Young Readers)
Namrata Tripathi (Vice President and Publisher of Kokila Books/Penguin)
Irene Vazquez (Editorial and Marketing Assistant, Levine Querido)
Cheryl Willis Hudson (Editorial Director, Just Us Books)
Clarissa Wong (Executive Editor, Scholastic)
Phoebe Yeh (Vice President & Publisher, Crown Books for Young Readers)
Marietta Zacker (Agent, Gallt & Zacker)