Please join us in-person on Wednesday, March 16th at 7 pm in Love Library Room LL-430 for Conversations in Children’s, Middle Grade, and Young Adult Literature: A Reading and Discussion featuring Award-winning Authors and Scholars, Chris Baron, Lashon Daley, and Matt de la Peña

Chris Baron is the award-winning author of two Middle Grade novels in verse, ALL OF ME, and THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT (2021) & the forthcoming novels,  THE GRAY WORLD (2023) FOREST HEART (2024) all from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan. He's a contributor to the Young Adult Anthology, EVERY BODY SHINES, (2021) from Bloomsbury, and the author of Lantern Tree: (poetry), (2012) from CityWorks Press winner of San Diego Book Award. He is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center.

Lashon Daley is an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature with a specialization in Black Children's Literature at SDSU. Her book project, Black Girl Lit: The Coming of (R)age Performances in Contemporary U.S. Black Girlhood Narratives, 1989-2019, charts how children's literature, film, television, and social media has helped shape our cultural understanding of what it means to be young, Black, and female in the U.S. She is the recipient of the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry and the Mark Goodson Prize for Distinguished Artistic Talent, among other honors. Her children’s book, Mr. Okra Sells Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, was released in February 2016.

Matt de la Peña is the New York Times Bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author of seven young adult novels (including Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, and Superman: Dawnbreaker) and six picture books (including Love and Last Stop on Market Street). In 2016 he was awarded the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award and in 2019 he was given an honorary doctorate from UOP.