Guest authors selected for 2008 Young Writers’ Conference

 Suzanna Pitzer and Lisa Harkrader

Two authors with Kansas ties will be featured speakers for the 2008 Young Writers’ Conference April 19 at Emporia High School School.

The Young Writers’ Conference will be held from 8:30 – 11:30 a.m., and no admission will be charged.  The general sessions with the authors at 9 a.m. are open to the public. The rest of the morning will be devoted to writing workshops and small-group sessions for invited students.

Writer and illustrator Suzanna Pitzer, a native Kansan now living in New York, will speak to students in grades 1 - 4. She also writes plays, teaches workshops, and is a production and research assistant for the PBS program, “Keeping Kids Healthy.” She also is a writing mentor for the Writing Circle Program at Visible Theatre in New York.

Pitzer also has written “Grandfather Hurant Lives Forever” and illustrated “Talking About Divorce and Separation” and “A Bunch of Balloons.”

Lisa Harkrader of Tonganoxie will speak to students in grades 5 – 12. Harkrader also is a native Kansan and her new book “Airball: My Life in Briefs” is to be released next week. She has written 13 books for young adolescents, including “The Grizzly Bear,” “Cuba: a MyReportLinks.com Book,” “The Orangutan” and “Kidding Around Kansas City.”

After the general sessions, elementary students will meet in small groups and share one of their own published stories. Intermediate and secondary students will participate in a writing workshop with Amy Sage Webb and Kevin Rabas, both associate professors of English at Emporia State University.

At the conclusion of the program at 11:30, both authors will be available for book signings.

More than 300 students in first grade through high school have been selected by their teachers to participate in the conference based on their writing skills. Invited students will each receive a copy of a book written by one of the guest authors. Elementary students will receive Pitzer’s “Not Afraid of Dogs” published in 2006 and intermediate and secondary students will receive Harkrader’s “Airball.”

The Young Writers’ Conference is sponsored by the Emporia Public Schools and the Emporia Public Library with financial support from other area schools, businesses, other businesses, organizations and individuals.

For more information, interested parents can contact their child’s teacher or Shane Heiman at Village, 341-2282, or Kara Conley at Walnut, 341-2288.