Debbie Reese

A flyer for the Indigenous Author Panel

Indigenous YA Author Panel

Superstition Review
  • A flyer for the Indigenous Author Panel

On Tuesday Nov. 1st, from 5:00pm – 6:15pm, hear Indigenous authors’ perspectives on diversity, inclusion, and equity in Native American YA literature. Featured authors include Dr. Debbie Reese, Brian Young, and Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Dr. Debbie Reese founded the American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL) and wrote An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People. Brian Young has worked on a number of films, and his most recent book The Healer of the Water Monster is the American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner: Best Middle Grade Book. Finally, Cynthia Leitich Smith has written a number of books, among them Rain is Not my Indian Name, and won a variety of awards.

This event is free and takes place over Zoom. It’s being hosted by the Arizona Department of Education–Office of Indian Education and Arizona Humanities. To learn more and register, go here.

#ArtLitPhx: Indigenous Lecture by Debbie Reese, Activist, Scholar and Critic

Superstition Review

Debbie-Reese2

Debbie Reese is the featured speaker in the fall 2016 Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community. Reese will present “Some Truths, but Lots of Lies: Indigenous Peoples in Children’s Literature.” The event takes place on Thursday, October 20 at 7 p.m. at Heard Museum, Steele Auditorium. The lecture is free of charge and open to the public.

Debbie Reese is a scholar, critic, and publisher of the blog American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL). She was a professor in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Reese was born at the Indian Hospital in Santa Fe and grew up on the Nambé Pueblo reservation, learning tribal dances and ceremonies from family members and elders. She earned a teaching degree from the University of New Mexico and taught elementary school in Albuquerque before moving to Oklahoma to work on a Master’s degree in school administration.

Later, while completing her doctorate in education at the University of Illinois In the early 1990s, Reese worked alongside Native students and allies to establish a Native American House at the university. Soon after that, she helped launch an American Indian Studies program there.

Reese has written for publications such as Horn Book Magazine, School Library Journal, and Language Arts, the latter published by the National Council for Teachers of English. She is regularly invited to give lectures and workshops around the U.S. and has recently begun using technology to work with libraries and colleagues in Canada.

For more information please visit the Facebook event or the event website.