Keynote Speaker: Meg Medina
2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature
Meg Medina is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book MERCI SUÁREZ CHANGES GEARS, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: MERCI SUÁREZ CAN’T DANCE and MERCI SUÁREZ PLAYS IT COOL. Her young adult novels include YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which will be published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; BURN BABY BURN, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND. She is also the author of picture books EVELYN DEL REY IS MOVING AWAY, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez, Jumpstart’s 2020 Read for the Record selection; MANGO, ABUELA, AND ME, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, which was a Pura Belpré Author Award Honor Book; and TÍA ISA WANTS A CAR, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award; and the biography for young readers SHE PERSISTED: SONIA SOTOMAYOR. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.
