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September 25, 2021 by Travis Jonker

Recap: The Plum Creek Literacy Festival

September 25, 2021 by Travis Jonker   Leave a Comment

This week the Plum Creek Literacy Festival was cancelled.

It all started with this Twitter thread by author Eliot Schrefer, who noticed when some of his books with LGBTQ+ characters/themes weren’t included for sale at the festival:

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I just withdrew from a conference that was supposed to start this week. I’ve never backed out of an event before, and I know many of my readers will be disappointed. I want to explain here why I won’t be presenting.

— Eliot Schrefer ? (@EliotSchrefer) September 20, 2021

It takes guts to publicly talk about something like this, so I want to thank Eliot for sharing his experience.

In his thread he also shared the host university’s squarely anti-LGBTQ+ code of conduct, which I, and the authors attending the festival, don’t agree with.

The result? Authors began to withdraw from the event. In response, the festival organizers released a statement:

We are saddened to lose several gifted authors who decided to withdraw from Plum Creek after learning the policies of Concordia University, Nebraska, our host site. While the festival won’t be the same without them, we respect their decision and value their feedback. pic.twitter.com/twHLOMNUnZ

— Plum Creek Literacy Festival (@PlumCreekFest) September 21, 2021

. . . which left many people with more questions than answers. Eventually, so many (all?) of the authors withdrew, leading to the cancellation of the event:

We are sad to announce our on-campus Friday and Saturday events are canceled. We are sorry for the thousands of children who will not experience this year’s events, and we will remain committed to providing quality opportunities for literary exploration in the future.

— Plum Creek Literacy Festival (@PlumCreekFest) September 23, 2021

So many good children’s literature folks have weighed in on Twitter, raising excellent questions about the event and outlining the clear problems with Concordia’s policies. Please click on the threads above to read them.

I support the authors who pulled out. An event with ties to this sort of anti-LGBTQ+ code of conduct is unacceptable. I’m glad this is coming to light.

It also make me wonder (as some have touched on): How many faith-based colleges and universities around the country have similar codes of conduct hiding in plain sight?

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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