CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

The ever-reliable PaperTigers blog has published a list of international children’s literature events being held this month. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel. Here they are.

Thanks PaperTigers.

Can’t make it to ASLA 2009, the biennial conference of the Australian School Library Association? It’s being held in Perth as we speak (and the weather is looking less dodgy than in recent weeks, too).

Set your Twitter client of choice to receive updates using hashtag #asla2009 and you can pretend you are there. Formal tweets from the committee and informal ones from attendees are already starting to fly.

Authors in attendance include Libby Gleeson, Leonie Norrington, Karen Tayleur, Mike and Joy Lefroy, Alice Pung and Kate McCaffrey.

The conference finishes on Friday, which just gives you enough time to catch your breath before heading to Chicago.

Why? Because that’s where the IBBY Regional Conference is being held at the weekend. And all the plenary sessions will be webcast. Just make sure your Flash is up to date. Here’s the program. It only starts with Shaun Tan and David Wiesner in conversation about illustration. Oh, and Katherine Paterson is putting in an appearance too. Just a little conference then. If it’s being tweeted we’ll let you know the hashtag. Via Twitter of course.

For those unable to attend (or for those who would like to relive) the Reading Matters Conference in Melbourne at the end of May, the Read Alert blog from The Centre for Youth Literature has collated the impressions of Anthony Eaton, James Roy, blogger Adele aka Persnickety Snark, blogger Jonathan aka Bookboy, Alison Goodman and John Green.

The next RM is in 2011 – start planning now.

… has a whole conference devoted to her works. This sounds like a very good reason to be in Bristol in early July this year. Of course, the author of so much wonderful speculative fiction will be in attendance as guest of honour.

The venue is the University of the West of England. The dates are July 3-5 and the closing date for registration 20 June.

Here’s an interview about her Worlds of Chrestomanci series.

From midnight tonight (AEST) speculative ficton writers from around the world (and their readers) will be participating in Flycon 2009 - an online convention of author chats, interviews, workshops and panels.

Here’s the schedule, and you will see that there’s much to interest YA aficionados. It’s thoughtful of the organisers to give five time zones : Auckland, Sydney, London, US East Coast, US West Coast.

The Fairy Tale workshop on Sunday morning sounds especially interesting, although it’s on at 4am Perth time so it might be a tough one to ‘attend’:

From Walt Disney to Robin McKinley to Anne Rice to Gregory McGuire and beyond, lots of people have been drawn to retell fairy tales. In this workshop we’ll examine what makes a good retelling so satisfying, and also take a look at some of the retelling trends that aren’t so hot. We’ll also discuss fairy tale friendly markets. Put your name down for this, as workshop will be locked to protect publication rights.

Have a look and see if there is anything for you. You can also follow the action on twitter. There is an aggregated Flycon feed here.

People who live in Victoria don’t have much to celebrate at the moment, so to anticipate anything literary is welcome. Especially when it’s the 2009 program from the Centre for Youth Literature.  So many good things are planned that it’s worth at least one interstate trip if you can manage it. Of course many do travel far and wide to attend the Reading Matters Conference and that program is also now available. A reminder about the dates: Main event Friday 29 and Saturday 30 May, with a Youth Day on Thursday 28 May. Don’t leave the booking too late.

Melbourne’s Centre for Youth Literature is offering a great lineup for its 2009 conference, Reading Matters. Details are here but just to whet your appetite, think John Green and M.T. Anderson from the USA, Cathy Cassidy and Mal Peet (UK), Bernard Beckett (NZ) plus many, many great Australian writers for young adults.

Diary date claimer dates are 29 and 30 May (with a Youth Day on 28 May) just as Melbourne is heading into a crisp and lovely winter.

The Reading Matters conference is especially nice as no tough choices have to be made. Everyone shares the two days together, which makes for stimulating conversation during the breaks.

We know that Children’s Book Week will be here in two weeks, with the announcement of the winning books on August 14. School libraries everywhere in Australia are busy fuelling the minds of their readers.

But if you are lucky enough to have travel on your mind, or if you are just interested in what is going on elsewhere, there are plenty of other book-related events happening around the world in August. Thanks to the Papertigers site for keeping us informed.

The current issue of Papertigers is devoted to literacy.

Further to her NY Times essay about YA literature, Margo Rabb interviews Markus Zusak on her blog Books, Chocolates, Sundries.

She asks Markus a number of questions in the email interview including: There is often a stigma that adult readers have against literature for children and young adults. Have you encountered this stigma yourself?

In an editor’s note she rues that this is only an email interview, for reasons that anyone who has met Markus can readily understand.

Her interview with Mark Haddon, also about the YA/adult crossover publishing scene, is also on the blog.

The Centre for Youth Literature has announced the dates for the 2009 Reading Matters Conference. This two-day event is a perfect reason for lovers of YA literature to plan a trip to Melbourne. Put Friday 29 May and Saturday 30 May in your diary now, although bookings won’t open until October. A youth program will run on Thursday 28 May.

At this stage the program is still under wraps, but Reading Matters is always a stimulating event. Who could forget Meg Rosoff, David Levithan, Jacqueline Wilson and John Boyne at the 2007 event, along with many, many, many of our own YA writers.

The CYA blog, Read Alert, is the place to stay informed, although we will also keep you posted.