Publishing Panel: How to Create a Dynamic Presentation

Three award-winning authors (one an author-illustrator) discuss their go-to strategies for dynamic presentations. Whether it’s talking to students in a school setting, on a panel talking nuts and bolts to educators at a conference setting, or doing readings at your local indie bookstore, these three fabulous creators know how to get audiences engaged, laughing, and learning and will present a 60 minute panel on how you, too, can do just this. Nothing brings readers to your books better than your own passion for the subject, and these tips and on-the-ground stories will bring a whole new level of inspiration to your presentations, wherever they may be.

Alicia D. Williams is the award-winning author of Genesis Begins Again, which received the Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, a William C. Morris finalist, and won the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Alicia D also debuted a picture book biography, Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston and followed up with Jane Addams Peace Award winning Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress. Her latest picture book, The Talk, won both Coretta Scott King and Golden Kite Honors. Alicia now celebrates her new novel-in-verse, Mid-Air.

Alicia shares a passion for writing which stems from conducting artist residencies in schools as a Master Teaching Artist of arts-integration. Alicia D infuses her love for drama, movement, comedy, and storytelling to inspire students to write their own narratives.

Isabel Roxas is an author and illustrator. She has illustrated numerous books for young readers, including Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli (ALA Notable Book 2021, SLJ BEST BOOK 2021), and Day at the Market with May Tobias-Papa (2010 Philippine National Book Award). Her debut graphic novel, The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens, won the 2023 SCBWI Golden Kite Award. Isabel was born in Manila, Philippines, was raised on luscious mangoes, old wives’ tales, and monsoon moons. She now resides in New York City and in her spare time, publishes artist books and zines for children under the imprint Little Big Time Press. To learn more visit: studioroxas.com

Nora Shalaway Carpenter‘s (WCYA ‘12) debut novel The Edge of Anything was named “Best of the Year” by Bank Street, Kirkus Reviews, and A Mighty Girl, and was a Library of Congress Discover Great Places Through Reading list selection. Her critically acclaimed anthology Rural Voices was an NPR Best Book of the Year, a Bank Street Best Book, a Whippoorwill Award winner for authentic rural fiction, and a Nautilus Award double winner, among numerous other honors. Her new novel, Fault Lines, was recently named to the prestigious TAYSHAS state reading list by the Texas Library Association and selected as a Cybils Award finalist. Her new anthology of mental health fiction, AB(solutely) NORMAL, was also named to the TAYSHAS Texas state reading list. 

Nora holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and serves as faculty for the Highlights Foundation’s Whole Novel Workshop and Intro to Short Fiction class. An academic at heart, she loves to nerd out about research and presents at numerous conferences every year.