Wednesday, July 14, 1:00pm CDT
Join New York Times-bestselling and award-winning creators AG Ford, Cátia Chien, and Cathy Camper for a lively conversation reflecting on the beginnings of their careers and their different paths to creating children’s books. They’ll discuss the changing landscape of children’s literature, its lasting influence, and its power to positively impact and uplift all young readers. Viewers will leave feeling inspired after listening to these remarkable and varied journeys to publication.
A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to those who attend this webinar. A recording will be posted to Mackin.com for those who cannot participate in the live session.
Speakers
Cathy Camper
Author
Cathy Camper is the author of “Lowriders in Space,” “Lowriders to the Center of the Earth,” “Lowriders Blast from the Past,” and a fourth volume “Lowriders to the Rescue” coming spring 2022, all from Chronicle Books. Her zines include “Sugar Needle” and “The Lou Reeder,” and she’s a founding member of the Portland Women of Color zine collective. A graduate of VONA/Voices writing workshops for people of color in Berkeley, California, Camper works as a librarian in Portland, Oregon, where she does outreach to schools and kids in grades K-12.
Cátia Chien
Illustrator
Cátia Chien is a Brazilian Taiwanese artist. She’s the illustrator of such titles as “The Bear and the Moon,” which won the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal for Original Art and a Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration; “A Boy and a Jaguar,” an ALA Notable Book and recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award; and the upcoming picture book, “The Longest Letsgoboy.” Her art has been shown in galleries worldwide including the Beijing National Gallery and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. She is also the founder of A Thousand Worlds, a curated picture book directory celebrating BIPOC creators. She lives in southern California with her family.
AG Ford
Illustrator
AG Ford is a New York Times-bestselling children’s book illustrator and recipient of two NAACP Image Awards. He grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended the Columbus College of Art and Design majoring in illustration. He has illustrated picture books for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sharon Robinson, Ilyasah Shabazz, Martin Luther King III, Nick Cannon, Jonah Winter, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and many others. Ford has over 30 published books for children including picture books, chapter books such as the Magic Tree House series, and YA covers. He has worked with publishers such as HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, Candlewick Press, Chronicle Books, and more. He lives in Frisco, Texas, with his lovely wife Brandy and their two sons, Maddox and Carter.
Sandra Farag – Moderator
Head of Youth Services at Kalamazoo Public Library
Sandra Farag was previously Manager of Collection Development for Youth at Ingram Library Services in LaVergne, TN. She also has worked at BookOps-Brooklyn & New York Public Library, and the New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Branch where she served as a Supervising Librarian and a Senior Librarian respectively.
In addition to her work experience, Sandra has also served on multiple award committees, and presented and/or moderated events at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, the American Library Association Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table, the Young Adult Library Services Association Symposium, Bank Street College, School Library Journal Day of Dialog, KidLitTV, and BookCon NYC.
Kia Heise, Ph.D. – Host
Mackin Learning
Kia Heise holds a doctorate in Sociology and taught in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities for several years before joining Mackin Learning. Her approach is informed by thousands of hours learning how to navigate discussions of social inequality with diverse groups of young people. She is also the author of the Little Sock picture books.
