The Alan Conference November 19-20, 2007

The ALAN Conference (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English) is a two-day workshop devoted to literature and young adults. This year's theme was "Helping Teens Discover a Sense of "Place" and "Self" Through Young Adult Literature."

Susan Levine, Diane Monnier, Kathie Weinberg and I attended the conference where we enjoyed listening to authors talk about where they get their ideas and inspiration in writing. The keynote speaker, Sherman Alexie, the author of "The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," spoke of his family and his experiences growing up on an Indian reservation. We also heard Chris Crutcher speak on censorship and teens.

The young adult book writers we heard included Jacqueline Woodson, Christopher Myers, Brian Selznick, Peter Sis, Rich Wallace, Ben Mikaelsen, Gloria Whelan, Holly Black, Lauren Myracle, Helen Frost, T.A. Barron, David Lubar, Pete Hautman, Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sarah Zarr, Christopher Paul Curtis and many others. The authors spoke on various topics including teens and censorship, teens and poetry, teens and humor, and teens from other cultures living under oppressive governments.

I attended the "Don't Wanna: Books to Let Reluctant Readers Discover Who They Can Be." We were introduced to books on different genres to attract reluctant readers. The other session I attended was called "The Novel Challenge" about banned materials. One of the speakers (a middle school librarian) told about how a grandparent in her school complained about a book and contacted the press to increase the exposure of her complaint.

I came away from this conference learning a lot about what teen want and why these writers enjoyed writing for teens.

ALAN Conference--NYC

A thoroughly enjoyable and energizing conference! The ALAN Conference (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English), held November 19-20, 2007, featured about four dozen authors of teen literature talking about their writing, teens’ reactions to their books, and the needs they see among teens. There were special sessions concerning censorship and developing plays and poetry slams, with all sessions of the conference dealing with the topic of “helping teens discover a sense of ‘place’ and ‘self’ through Young Adult literature.” Particularly moving talks were given by Sherman Alexie, winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, Chris Crutcher, and Peter Sis. The two breakout sessions I attended focused on Young Adult literature about mental illness (good discussion of books and a helpful resulting bibliography) and a censorship case against Marilyn Reynolds’ book Detour for Emmy (a grandmother objected to the book’s sexual content and language). The librarian, also a grandmother, felt strongly about protecting the freedom to read and ultimately succeeded in keeping the book in the library.