Festival Info

Pre-Recorded It’s All Relative: Sibling Stories

Join a dynamic conversation between an award-winning team of celebrated authors, all of whom have books that explore the unique dynamics of sibling-hood. Find out how and why they chose to explore the special (and sometimes frustrating!) dynamic between sibs, and how their own upbringing may have influenced their choices. The panel will be led by Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly (WE DREAM OF SPACE) and includes Newbery Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Renée Watson (WAYS TO MAKE SUNSHINE), Arab American Book Award Winner Susan Muaddi Darraj (FARAH ROCKS FIFTH GRADE), and debut novelist Sarah Allen (WHAT STARS ARE MADE OF).

WHEN: 02:00PM EST on Friday, 1 May 2020

Panelists:

Erin Entrada Kelly received the 2018 Newbery Medal for HELLO UNIVERSE, the 2017 APALA Award for THE LAND OF FORGOTTEN GIRLS, and the 2016 Golden Kite Honor Award for BLACKBIRD FLY, among other honors. She is a NYT-bestselling author whose work has appeared on numerous best-of lists. All her books are Junior Library Guild Selections. Her next book, WE DREAM OF SPACE, releases May 5.


Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and activist. Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury, 2017) received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her children’s picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. Her poetry and fiction often centers around the lived experiences of black girls and women, and explores themes of home, identity, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon and currently lives in New York City.


Susan Muaddi Darraj won an American Book Award for her short story collection, A Curious Land; the book also won an Arab American Book Award and the AWP Grace Paley Prize. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including a USA Ford Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, a Maryland Individual Artists Award, and a Ruby’s Grant. Her debut children’s novel, Farah Rocks Fifth Grade, is the first chapter book series to feature a Palestinian American protagonist.


Sarah Allen has been published in The Evansville Review, Allegory, and on WritersDigest. She has an MFA from Brigham Young University. Like Libby, she was born with Turner Syndrome. What Stars are Made Of is her first novel.