Buffalo State College English Department Brings Children's Literature Association Annual Meeting to Buffalo
Syracuse fantasy and science fiction writer Bruce Coville, Phoenix Award winner Peter Dickinson and Buffalo's own Spin-a-Storytellers will be among the notables at the 2001 Children's Literature Association Annual Conference, "Bridges," to be held in Buffalo June 6-10 at the Adam's Mark Hotel.
The conference will open at 8 p.m. June 5, with tales told by the Spin-a-Storytellers, Western New York's oldest guild of professional storytellers.
Chiefly for college instructors, this year's conference will include a Saturday morning track for elementary and secondary schoolteachers. Presenters that session will include Tennessee poet laureate Margaret Britton Vaughn, who will speak on reading poetry to children, and young adult literature author Alexandria LaFaye, who will speak on teaching the writing of literature from grades four and up.
On Thursday, June 7, Dr. Muriel A. Howard, president of Buffalo State College, will give opening remarks at 8:30 a.m., to be followed from 9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. by concurrent sessions focusing on topics such as "The Disabled Character as Bridge in Contemporary American Children's Literature" and "Are the Bridges Collapsing: Some Concerns About the Future of Multicultural Literature." The afternoon's concurrent sessions, to run from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. include topics such as "The Sins of Fathers: Self Deception" and "Fantasy, Wizardry, Magic and the Harry Potter Phenomenon" at the earlier sessions and "Bridges to Books: Paratexts, Props and Publicity" and "Linguistic Secrets: Bridging the Gender Codes of Children's Conversations" at the later sessions.
On Friday morning from 8:30-10, "Cinderella's Bridges: Reviving the Folk Tale in Ever After" and "Runaway Teens in Adolescent Literature" will be presented; and from 10:30 a.m.-noon, "The Homefront and the Malt Shop Book: American Juvenile Fiction of the 1940s" and "A Realizing Sense: Confronting Essentialism in White Point of View Stories About Slavery," will be presented. From 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m. "Why is J. K. Rowling the Richest Woman in England?" and "Out of the Mouths of Adults: Childhood Studies as the Basis for a Revolution in Conceptualizing Literature" will be presented.
Saturday afternoon's concurrent sessions will include a panel on Appalachian literature and "A View from the Bridge: Winnie-the-Pooh's Game of Poohsticks" from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., and a panel on Chinese Children's literature and "Bridging the Gap to Adulthood: the Identification of the Adolescent Self" from 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Sunday morning's concurrent session from 9-10:30 will include "Welcome to the World, Little One: Violence, Power and Politics in Picture Books" and "A Boy in the Basement and Mama's Got the Blues."
Coville, author of "My Teacher is a Sixth Grade Alien," will be on hand Friday at 1 p.m. for a presentation and book signing. Dickinson's keynote address will be given at a banquet at 7:30 that evening.
All events and sessions will be held at the Adam's Mark Hotel.
The conference will open at 8 p.m. June 5, with tales told by the Spin-a-Storytellers, Western New York's oldest guild of professional storytellers.
Chiefly for college instructors, this year's conference will include a Saturday morning track for elementary and secondary schoolteachers. Presenters that session will include Tennessee poet laureate Margaret Britton Vaughn, who will speak on reading poetry to children, and young adult literature author Alexandria LaFaye, who will speak on teaching the writing of literature from grades four and up.
On Thursday, June 7, Dr. Muriel A. Howard, president of Buffalo State College, will give opening remarks at 8:30 a.m., to be followed from 9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. by concurrent sessions focusing on topics such as "The Disabled Character as Bridge in Contemporary American Children's Literature" and "Are the Bridges Collapsing: Some Concerns About the Future of Multicultural Literature." The afternoon's concurrent sessions, to run from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. include topics such as "The Sins of Fathers: Self Deception" and "Fantasy, Wizardry, Magic and the Harry Potter Phenomenon" at the earlier sessions and "Bridges to Books: Paratexts, Props and Publicity" and "Linguistic Secrets: Bridging the Gender Codes of Children's Conversations" at the later sessions.
On Friday morning from 8:30-10, "Cinderella's Bridges: Reviving the Folk Tale in Ever After" and "Runaway Teens in Adolescent Literature" will be presented; and from 10:30 a.m.-noon, "The Homefront and the Malt Shop Book: American Juvenile Fiction of the 1940s" and "A Realizing Sense: Confronting Essentialism in White Point of View Stories About Slavery," will be presented. From 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m. "Why is J. K. Rowling the Richest Woman in England?" and "Out of the Mouths of Adults: Childhood Studies as the Basis for a Revolution in Conceptualizing Literature" will be presented.
Saturday afternoon's concurrent sessions will include a panel on Appalachian literature and "A View from the Bridge: Winnie-the-Pooh's Game of Poohsticks" from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., and a panel on Chinese Children's literature and "Bridging the Gap to Adulthood: the Identification of the Adolescent Self" from 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Sunday morning's concurrent session from 9-10:30 will include "Welcome to the World, Little One: Violence, Power and Politics in Picture Books" and "A Boy in the Basement and Mama's Got the Blues."
Coville, author of "My Teacher is a Sixth Grade Alien," will be on hand Friday at 1 p.m. for a presentation and book signing. Dickinson's keynote address will be given at a banquet at 7:30 that evening.
All events and sessions will be held at the Adam's Mark Hotel.
Media Contact:
Nanette Tramont, Director of News Services | 7168784325 | newsservices@bscmail.buffalostate.edu