ALA Annual 2026 Photo Dump (Part II: People)

Earlier this week, we took a look at some of the books that stood out at the 2026 American Library Association Annual Conference last week. Today is about the people.

I travelled to the conference with teacher pal and partner in Yarn Colby Sharp. Shout out South Shore train line getting us into Chicago:

One highlight was facing off with author Steve Sheinkin in chess. He has a new nonfiction graphic novel coming out Sept. 8 called Mind vs. Machine: The Chess Match That Changed the World (illustrated by Thien Pham). It honestly looks great, and is at the top of my TBR pile. To celebrate, Steve was challenging folks to a chess face off. I was game.

KidLitTV made a video of the match: click here to watch it!

And I lost.

Pretty badly, actually.

We stopped for a photo booth moment at the TVS Media Group gathering, and it was great to see pal John Schu (as I stare into the soul of the camera).

ALA has been a big opportunity to get interviews for The Yarn podcast.

Yarn HQ.

All the recording gear.

We started things off with a bang: Matthew Cordell (talking about his latest, 102) and Catia Chien (talking about her Caldecott Medal winner, Fireworks).

Colby Sharp interviewed the legend herself, Lois Lowry (!), and Chanel Miller.

And over the course of the weekend I had the chance to talk with Micha Archer about While We’re Here, Angie Kang about Navigating Night . . .

. . . and Christopher Myers about Night Ride.

We also had a Norton publisher meal, where you might recognize the guests of honor:

Kate DiCamillo, who has an as yet unannounced new book with Norton, and . . .

Rex Ogle (author of Free Lunch), who was there to talk about his next book Absent, which is uniquely told in three different formats: comic, verse, and prose.

Eventually, it was time for the big event: The Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy banquet.

Before the festivities began, I got the chance to talk with authors Chris Clarkson and Winsome Bingham. Things got deep, and our convo ended up being a highlight of the whole weekend.

Then it was into the banquet hall. The Caldecott Medal winner is in charge of creating the program, and Catia Chien made something incredible:

A pinwheeling, gatefolding masterpiece. Did I carry that sucker around for the rest of the night so I could save it for later? Yes.

Then the awards and speeches commenced.

Here are the obligatory kinda blurry banquet hall shots of the 2026 Caldecott class:

And Newbery:

Then Legacy Award winner Candace Fleming closed things out:

It was truly wonderful to be among all the book people at ALA this year.

Filed under: Articles