How do fiction and nonfiction creators research topics with little historical documentation? Authors and illustrators whose books center Black history discuss how they investigate lesser-known figures and events and bring them into the light. This live, free webcast will feature award-winning creators Carole Boston Weatherford, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Amina Luqman-Dawson, and James Ransome. Marva Hinton will moderate the conversation.
SPEAKERS
The daughter of a printer, Carole Boston Weatherford was practically born with ink in her blood. She began writing at age six, and soon after, she saw her poems in print. She has authored more than 70 books, which have garnered two NAACP Image Awards and multiple ALA Youth Media Awards, including a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award and Honors, and four Caldecott Honors. Her career achievements have been recognized with the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Nonfiction Award from the Children’s Book Guild, and induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the author of numerous nonfiction and historical fiction titles for picture book, chapter book, middle grade, and YA readers. Her verse biography of Harriet Tubman, Before She Was Harriet, was nominated for an NAACP image award and received a Jane Addams Honor, Christopher Award, and CSK Honor for Illustration. Her middle grade novel, Finding Langston, won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the CSK Award Author Honor. Lamb, her debut YA historical fiction novel set in Jim Crow Mississippi, was named a New York Public Library Best Book and a Booklist Editor’s Choice. She lives in Rhinebeck, NY, with her husband and frequent collaborator, James Ransome.
Amina Luqman-Dawson is the Newbery Medal and CSK Award–winning and bestselling author of Freewater and the pictorial history book Images of America: African Americans of Petersburg. Her op-eds on race and popular culture have appeared in The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and other venues. She resides in Arlington, VA, with her husband and son. Visit her online at aminaluqman-dawson.com.
James E. Ransome won a CSK Medal for The Creation by James Weldon Johnson, along with three CSK Honor awards, including one for Before She Was Harriet, written by his wife, Lesa Cline-Ransome. His collaborations with his wife also include Just a Lucky So and So: The Story of Louis Armstrong. He lives in Rhinebeck, NY.
Moderator Marva Hinton is a Horn Book editor, frequent School Library Journal contributor, and host of the Readmore podcast (readmorepodcast.com).
