Instagramming ALA 2023 (Part II)

Continuing my ALA Annual 2023 journey . . . (click here if you missed Part I)

One cool thing about the conference is that there are so many authors and illustrators there that scheduling interviews for The Yarn podcast is pretty simple. We had a little room to record in and made podcast hay while the sun was shining (or something like that).

Here’s the recording setup. It was time to kick off the interviews with . . .

Mexikid creator Pedro Martín! I recently read this book and completely loved it. Seriously – it’s among the best books I’ve read in 2023. It was great to talk with him about how it was made.

I got to see a lot of pals at ALA. I always forget to take pictures, so thankfully Minh Lê snapped this one (and if you aren’t following him on Twitter and Instagram, you should – his ALA posts have been truly epic).

If you didn’t DoorDash Taco Bell at the end of the night, did you even really have fun?

Back at it bright and early the next day to record a conversation with 2023 Caldecott Honor winner Christopher Denise all about his book Knight Owl. I had never met him before and am so glad I got the chance.

I swung by this panel: Cozy Classics. Moderated by librarian Brian Wilson and featuring Matthew Cordell, Jessixa Bagley, and The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow author Elaine Dimopoulos. A completely delightful time listening to how they incorporate animals into their work.

The rest of the afternoon was spent recording interviews for The Yarn. This is me with comedian and Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock author Jesús Trejo . . .

. . . I interviewed Aaron and Jessixa Bagley about their upcoming graphic novel, Duel . . .

. . . and finished up the interviews by talking with Big creator Vashti Harrison. What a great group of people.

Next it was time to get fancy and head to the Newbery/Caldecott/ Legacy Banquet.

Every year the winner of the Caldecott Medal is tasked with illustrating the program. This year, Doug Salati (and the crew at Knopf) did an incredible job. A beautiful little bound booklet.

The banquet got underway.

Doug Salati was up first. His words brought a whole bunch of us in the audience to tears. Did we interview Doug about his Caldecott winning book Hot Dog? We did:

Newbery winner Amina Luqman-Dawson was next. Aside from being the best-dressed person at the banquet, her speech was incredibly funny and heartfelt. She was also recently featured on The Yarn, talking about Freewater:

Closing out the night with the great James Earl Ransome collecting his Children’s Literacy Legacy Award. As always, it was a wonderful night.

And that does it for my 2023 ALA Annual experience! See you in San Diego next year!

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