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Join members of the MN BIPOC Kidlit Creators for a conversation around why voices and representation matter. Joining us will be Panelists: Art Coulson, Ty Chapman, Kao Kalia Yang, Shannon Gibney, and Anika Fajardo

While the number of children’s books by or about people of color has slowly increased over the past five years, readers (and writers) are still not equitably represented in children’s literature. This panel of Minnesota authors will discuss the issues surrounding writing and publishing for kids in today’s social and political climate.

About the Panelists
Ty Chapman is the author of SARAH RISING, LOOKING FOR HAPPY, and A DOOR MADE FOR ME, (written with Tyler Merritt;) as well as multiple forthcoming children’s books through various publishers, and a forthcoming poetry collection through Button Poetry.

Art Coulson is a writer of Cherokee, English and Dutch descent and comes from a family of storytellers in all three traditions. Art is an award-winning 25-year career in journalism. He is the author of more than a dozen books, graphic novels and plays, including the middle grade novel, Chasing Bigfoot (2022), The Reluctant Storyteller (2020), and Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi! (2021).

Anika Fajardo, born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota, is the author of the middle-grade novels What If a Fish and Meet Me Halfway, as well as Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family.

Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), and Dream Country (Dutton, 2018) young adult novels that won Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2019. Her new novel, The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be, explores themes of transracial adoption through speculative memoir.

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong American writer of books for adults and children. Her titles include The Latehomecomer, The Song Poet, A Map into the World, and From the Tops of the Trees. Yang is a Guggenheim and McKnight Fellow this year.

Books on sale from SubText Books!