The 2026 ALAN Workshop 11-22 & 11/23

The highlight of each year is the annual ALAN Workshop. At this gathering, you will meet with colleagues from across the country, receive copies of some of the best and latest young adult titles and hear from a host of young adult authors. The workshop is held each year in conjunction with the Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). We will converge in Philadelphia, PA this year.

The 2026 ALAN Workshop theme, “Forging New Futures,” invites youth librarians, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers to dream up vibrant new futures with, for, and about young people. Young adult literature has been instrumental in expanding our collective imagination about youth–their lived experiences, their identities, and the roles they (could) play in society. In recent years, however, a resurgence of anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-Asian, and anti-LGBTQ sentiments, to name a few, alongside widespread censorship, has threatened the stories and practices that help us cultivate an all-embracing understanding of human experiences. However, as Maxine Greene (1995) reminds us, “We also have our social imagination: the capacity to invent visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient society, in the streets where we live, in our schools” (p. 5). So,  which YA books might help readers (re)imagine who they can be in the world and what that world could look like? What paths can we forge to lead us to futures where educators and youth alike can thrive? 

The ALAN leadership team has been hard at work to keep registration costs from increasing this year. We made some changes to meet this goal:

1. Registration for the Workshop will no longer include a box lunch. The Workshop will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, right next to the Reading Terminal Market which has over 75 family-owned eateries and craft stores.
2. Registration will not include a membership. Instead, ALAN members will receive a discount code for the Early Bird registration price. Don’t know when your membership expires? Click here to check and renew!
3. Registration includes a box of books! Book boxes will be limited to the first 250 people who register. There will be book giveaways at ALAN events at the NCTE Convention (e.g. the ALAN Booth, and more) as well as during the Workshop.

Please email ALANYAmembership@gmail.com if you haven’t received your membership discount link.

Early Bird rates are valid until October 7.

Nonmembers – Regular $390

ALAN @ NCTE
Day/ Time/Room	Session Type	Title	Keynote Author	Book Title	Publisher	Moderator
11/20/2026 12:30-1:45 PM Room 126-A	ALAN Roundtable	Current Conversations about Young Adult Literature in the Classroom
11/21/2026 7:00-9:15 AM Room: Ballroom B	ALAN Breakfast	Keynote Speaker	Elizabeth Acevedo	Anger Is Only a Shadow	HarperCollins	Introduced by Dr. Sybil Durand, ALAN President
11/21/2026 5:45-7:00 PM Room: 113-A	ALAN Author Seminar: Craft & Creativity	Keynote Speaker	Daniel Nayeri	This is A Door	Random House Children’s Books	Introduced by Dr. Sybil Durand, ALAN President
Sunday, November 22 – Workshop Schedule – BALLROOM B
Time	Session Type	Title	Author/Presenter	Book Title/ Presentation Description	Publisher	Moderator
1:00-2:00 PM		Check in and coffee social
2:00-2:10		Welcome	Sybil Durand
2:10-2:35	In Conversation	IT DOES COUNT! The Power of the Audiobook	Shifa Saltagi Safadi Joy McCullough	Sisters Alone Suffer A Witch	PRH Audio	Introduced by Zainab Jabak, Moderated by Rebecca Waugh, Editorial Director of Listening Library
2:35-3:00	Author Panel	Young Activists Fighting for Their Worlds	Cristina Jiménez Danica Novgorodoff & Meera Subramanian	Dreaming of Home A Better World Is Possible	Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group	Moderated by Federico Erebia, Author/Illustrator
3:00-3:15	Featured Author		Soman Chainani	Young World	Random House Children’s Books	Introduced by Anthony Celaya, Western Washington University
3:15-3:40	Author Panel	AI, Virtual Reality, and Online Spaces	Alexandra Kyllingstad Chloe Gong Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos	American Nightmare Deadlock The Doomsday Archives: Shadowglass	Sourcebooks Simon & Schuster Zando	Moderated by Neil Klein, Monroe County Public Library
3:40-3:50	Educator Presentation	Forging New Futures: YA Dystopia Meets STEAM Inquiry	Jennifer Kirchoff, East Syracuse Minoa Central High School & Joules Chapin, DeWitt Middle School	This presentation shares how students can analyze high-interest young adult dystopian texts to identify failures in fairness, safety, and ethics, then design real-world solutions through a choice-based PBL framework that fosters critical thinking and re-engages diverse middle and secondary readers as active community advocates.
3:50-4:00		Break
4:00-4:15	Featured Author		Tiffany Jackson	Ghost in The Night	Scholastic	Introduced by Christian Hines, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
4:15-4:40	Author Panel	Screams for All! Queer YA Horror/Thriller	Dana Mele K. Ancrum Kalynn Bayron Andrew Joseph White	Upstairs Room Adam, Mine Tell the Ghosts I am Gone You’re No Better	Sourcebooks HarperCollins Children’s Books Bloomsbury Children’s Books Peachtree	Moderated by Carol Brochin, University of Arizona
4:40-4:55	Educator Presentation	“We Came as One and Left as Many”: Monstrous Collectivities in Queer YA Horror	Ashlynn Wittchow, Louisiana State University	Drawing on works by Ryan La Sala, C.G. Drews, and Trang Thanh Tran, this poster examines monstrous collectivities in queer young adult horror. These novels make queer fears and desires visible through subverted genre conventions, imagining more-than-human futures that embrace queer communities beyond heteronormative social structures.
4:55-5:20	Author Panel	Blending Reality in Fantasy & Science Fiction	Isabel Cañas Jordan Ifueko K.A. Riley	The House of Gardenias The Genie Game Recruitment	Penguin Young Readers Abrams Sourcebooks	Moderated by Kait Waterhouse, University of Arizona
5:20-5:40	Keynote		Neal Shusterman	Rising Thunder: A Prequel to Scythe (First Blades)	Simon & Schuster	Introduced by Terri Suico, Saint Mary’s College
5:40-6:00	Break	Announcements and Transition to Reception	Sybil Durand
6:00-7:30		ALAN Reception: Author Meet & Greet	Philly Author Panel: Candice Iloh Alex London Lauren Magaziner Eric Smith		Penguin RandomHouse HarperCollins Simon & Shuster HarperCollins	Introduced by Jung Kim, ALAN President-elect Moderated Dr. Ilene Gregorio, author of This is My Brain in Love (Little, Brown) and None of the Above (HarperCollins)
Monday, November 23 – Workshop Schedule – BALLROOM B
Time	Session Type	Title	Author/Presenter	Book Title/ Presentation Description	Publisher	Moderator
8:00-8:10		Welcome & Anouncements	Sybil Durand
8:10-8:30	Keynote		Renée Watson	Everything New Again	Bloomsbury Children’s Books	Introduced by Karimah Marsh, Century Community Charter School
8:30-8:55	Author Panel	Celebrating Black Girlhoods	Jill Tew Kristen McCallum Nic Stone Paula Chase	Rayana Johnson’s Giant Leap Free Girls Dasia (Forever) Off Balance	Disney Publishing Macmillan Publishers Random House Children’s Books Macmillan Publishers	Moderated by Morgan Jackson, Dorado High School & University of Nevada Las Vegas
8:55-9:15	In Conversation	Embracing our Authentic Selves: Coming of Age in the 80s and 90s	Israel Moya Libba Bray	Monarchs in the Wild Radio Free Texas	Lee & Low Books Scholastic	Moderated by Candence Robillard, Lousiana State University Lab School
9:15-9:40	Award Panel	Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award	DeAndra Davis, Winner Joanne Yi, Finalist Charlene Thomas, Finalist	All the Noise at Once All the Tomorrows After It’s You Every Time	Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Shuster Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Shuster Scholastic	Moderated by Hunter Strickland, 2026 Committee Chair
9:40-9:50	Educator Presentation	Examining Trends in Rural Representation: Six Years of the Whippoorwill Award	Erika L. Bass, University of Northern Iowa	In 2019, the Whippoorwill Award for Rural YA and MG Books announced its first selection of books. We share the trends in rural representation in the six years of the Whippoorwill Award (2019-2025), highlighting the diverse nature of rural people and places through literature.
9:50-10:00		Break
10:00-10:15	Featured Author		Daniel Nayeri	This is a Door	Sourcebooks	Introduced by Michelle Yang-Kaczmarek, Dobbs Ferry School District
10:15-10:35	In Conversation	Books as Works of Creative Exploration	Grant Snider Kate Messner	The Year I Stopped Drawing Keep the Ghost Lights On	Abrams Bloomsbury Children’s Books	Moderated by Renee Stites Kruep, McKendree University
10:35-10:45	Educator Presentation	How Does Their Search History Reveal Motive?: Teaching Composition Through Multimedia Novels	Lauren Vandever, Oklahoma State University	Contemporary multimedia novels present stories through a variety of “documents”, such as interviews, recipes, search engine results, etc. This presentation shares an analysis of recent MG and YA texts alongside writing strategies highlighting how these novels can be used to engage students with narrative structure, authorial craft, and purposeful composition.
10:45-11:10	Author Panel	Expanding the Genre: Infusing Culture & Language in Speculative Fiction	Ama Ofosua Lieb Jessica Tagbajumi Randy Ribay Romina Garber	Golden Born Àkànní Nest of Tongues Wolves of No World: Lobizona and Cazadora	Scholastic Disney Publishing Random House Children’s Books Macmillan Publishers	Moderated by Anna Osborn, University of MO-Columbia
11:10-11:30	In Conversation	Telling Our Stories Through Images and Words	Nadine Takvorian Yevgenia Nayberg	Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters	Levine Querido Holiday House	Moderated by Paige Watts, Louisiana State University
11:30-11:40	Educator Presentation	Text Adoption Policies During a Time of Censorship	Kelly Buck & Susan Cridland-Hughes, Clemson University	Promoting partnership between school and public libraries to increase access to diverse materials. Session includes both programming and curricular suggestions based on past successes.
11:45-12:45		Lunch
12:45-1:10	Author Panel	Imagining a More Empathetic Future for Boys	Adib Khorram Rex Ogle Spencer Hall	One Word Six Letters Absent This Could All Go Bad	Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group Norton Young Readers / W. W. Norton & Company Bloomsbury Children’s Books	Moderated by Jason Griffith, Penn State University
1:10-1:35	Author Panel	Love In All Its Forms: Queer Teens Growing Up on Their Own Terms	DeAndra Davis Josh Galarza Kate Koenig	The Lovers, The Liars, and Me False Face Her Sharp Embrace	Simon & Schuster Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group Macmillan Publishers	Moderated by Jennifer Kathryn Fulton, Fairfax County Public Schools
1:35-2:00	Author Panel	Girls in the Middle	Haleh Massey, PhD Luisana Duarte Armendáriz Sarah Amini	My Name Is Harriet Mansoor (NOT Hairy Man Suit!) Julieta and the Cryptic Rose Mixed Signals AND Mixed Feelings	Lee & Low Books Lee & Low Books Scholastic	Moderated by Danielle Henzler, Duquesne University
2:00-2:10	Educator Presentation	From Representation to Self-Determination: Neurodivergent Voices Forging New Futures	Jace Brown, Weber State University & Rachel Knecht, Brigham Young University	This presentation explores pedagogical approaches to teaching neurodivergent young adult texts that emphasize agency, complexity, and self-determination. We will offer frameworks for evaluating neurodivergent representation and provide a curated list of young adult novels with guiding questions and discussion strategies. Attendees will gain practical tools for fostering inclusive classrooms and empowering students to engage critically with these stories.
2:10-2:20		Break
2:20-2:35	Featured Author		Ari Tison	Together We See	Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group	Introduced by Sandra Saco, Colorado State University Fort Collins
2:35-3:00	Author Panel	They Can Handle It: Writing About Difficult Topics for Teen Audiences	Kody Keplinger Olivia A. Cole Sharon Cameron Zeba Shahnaz	Where Lost Girls Go Annie Burned the House Down Up From the Ashes A Thousand Nights	Scholastic Random House Children’s Books Scholastic Candlewick Press	Moderated by Shana Call, Innovation High School
3:00-3:20	In Conversation	Historical Figures, Heroes, and Myths	Lesa Cline-Ransome M. T. Anderson	Ida B. Wells and the Untold Truth of a Country Stealing Saint Nick: A Legendary Corpse, a Notorious Theft, and the Stories that Shape the World	Holiday House Penguin Young Readers	Moderated by Kevin Cordi, Ohio University Lancaster
3:20-3:50	Author Panel	Confronting the Past to Imagine a Different Present	Andrea L. Rogers Elana K. Arnold Jennifer Robin Barr John Stephens Yamile Saied Méndez	Death in the Tallgrass Holloway Thunder and Mercy The Age of Fury Hear Ye Mortals	Levine Querido HarperCollins Children’s Books Astra Books for Young Readers Random House Children’s Books Levine Querido	Moderated by Melanie Shoffner, James Madison University
3:50-4:00		Break
4:00-4:10	Educator Presentation	Bridging the Access Gap: Partnership Between School and Public Libraries	Meagan Rupert, Airport Community Schools & Kelli Bejster, Monroe County Library System	This presentation will focus on promoting partnerships between school and public libraries to increase access to diverse materials. The session will include both programming and curricular suggestions based on past successes.
4:10-4:35	Author Panel	The Possibilities of New Beginnings	Frederick Joseph Max Fischer Megan E. Freeman Peter Bognanni	Everything’s Not Lost The Unpoetic Life of August Grey The Secret to Belonging How To Lose Yourself Completely	Penguin Young Readers Scholastic Simon & Schuster Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group	Moderated by Sheila Benson, University of Northern Iowa
4:35-4:55	Keynote		Amy S. King	It Came From the Creek	Scholastic
4:55-5:00		Closing	Sybil Durand, 2026 President & Jung Kim, 2027 President

Friday, November 20 – ALAN Roundtable Session

12:30 – 1:45 pm – Current Conversations about Young Adult Literature in the Classroom

Room: 126-A

Saturday, November 21 – ALAN Breakfast

7:00 – 9:15 am

Room: Ballroom B

Saturday, November 21 – ALAN SIG Meeting

5:45 – 7:00 pm – Craft & Creativity with Daniel Nayeri

Room: 113-A