Panel: “What is a Family? Exploring Contemporary Families in Contemporary YA”
with Brandy Colbert, Kim Dare, Jessie Ann Foley, Lilliam Rivera, and Ibi Zoboi

Room 348

Signing copies of FAR FROM THE TREE
HarperCollins Booth #1131

Join Robin Benway, Margaret Willison, and the Boston Globe's Meredith Goldstein for a conversation about writing, reading, advice-giving, pop culture-loving, and podcast-making!

YA FICTION: THE SECRET IN ME

3pm at the YA Stage, USC Campus

Join Robin Benway, Dana L. Davis, Kelly Loy Gilbert and Jennifer Gilmore for a conversation about their most recent young adult novels. The writers discuss their characters' complicated relationship with absent or enigmatic parents, and how exploring those familial relationships leads to a greater understanding of themselves. Moderated by Jonathan Hunt

LitWorks begins with an Open Author Panel in the auditorium of Ridgewood High School.  This panel is an opportunity for you to meet all six authors.  After the panel, you'll enjoy a FREE lunch and author presentations.  Authors will present three times so you have the opportunity to get to know and interact with three of your favorite authors!!!

With Arvin Armadi, Robin Benway, Kendare Blake, McKelle George, Jeff Zentner, and Mark Crilley.

What knowledge must be gained to enter adulthood? At what point does society recognize the transition out of childhood? What formative events shape who we become? Join 2017 Young People’s Literature Winner Robin Benway (Far From the Tree) and 2018 Fiction Finalist Brandon Hobson (Where The Dead Sit Talking) for a conversation that will explore how literature addresses the often blurry and porous lines between adolescence and adulthood. They will be in conversation with Tulsa Community College’s Metro Campus Provost Greg Stone.

How do we find the people and relationships that will prove meaningful in our lives? Families, both given and chosen, are a subject to which literature consistently returns—whether that’s defining what we think of as family, exploring the yearning for close connection, or depicting the struggle to cultivate deep relationships that are able to sustain us. Join the National Book Foundation for a conversation exploring how fiction tackles the defining and portraying of family, featuring 2018 Fiction Finalist Brandon Hobson (Where the Dead Sit Talking) and 2017 Young People’s Literature Winner Robin Benway (Far From the Tree). They will be in conversation with Tulsa City-County Regional Library Manager Rebecca Howard.

12pm: Identity Crisis Panel - Riverwalk YA Stage
Panelists: Ashley Woodfolk, Robin Benway, Gordon Jack. Moderator: Nic Stone
From losing loved ones to finding ones you didn't know existed, the events of adolescence are some of the most formative of our lives. What are all the ways we struggle as teens, and how do they contribute to the formation of the identities that come to define us?

2pm: The Impact of Female Authors on Young Adult Literature - Riverwalk YA Stage
Panelists: Nic Stone, Ashley Woodfolk, Robin Benway, Libba Bray, Gayle Forman. Moderator: Dr. Rosemarie Brock
This panel will consist of female YA authors who will discuss their audiences, intentions, and themes in the YA genre. These women will specifically focus on their beliefs about the role of a female author writing about young adults in the current climate of teens today.

3pm: Role of Masculinity - Riverwalk YA Stage
Panelists: Jason Reynolds, Gordon Jack, Nic Stone, Robin Benway, Ashley Woodfolk, Jerry Craft. Moderator: Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall
What is the role of a male character in contemporary YA lit? Has his role shifted over time, and what is the impact of male characters on today’s audience? This panel of authors will discuss the underlying concepts behind the creation and motivation of their male characters, especially given the varying settings in which their stories take place.

4pm: Book Signing

More information coming soon!

Robin Benway in conversation with Ingrid Bejerman

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available.

*Please note that this is a ticketed event.

Teens Stage

In Conversation with Robin Benway & Isabel Quintero

Isabel Quintero (Gabi, a Girl in Pieces) is returning to Cellar Door, now in conversation with Robin Benway, author of Far From the Tree, a National Book Award winner and staff pick.

Far From the Tree is a beautiful exploration of what it means to be family, told from the perspective of three teens who find each other and seek the story of the woman who gave them up. In Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary – the mundane, the difficult, and best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

Please click here to reserve your seats.

Cool off this summer by meeting and connecting with authors at your library! Refreshments will be provided and lucky winners will receive a free copy of the author’s book. 

When she was only five years old, Robin Benway first saw her name in print after she wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper.  Now she’s an award winning author whose most recent book, Far From the Tree, won the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Come meet this amazing author through the Summer Author program.

Cool off this summer by meeting and connecting with authors at your library! Refreshments will be provided and lucky winners will receive a free copy of the author’s book. 

When she was only five years old, Robin Benway first saw her name in print after she wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper.  Now she’s an award winning author whose most recent book, Far From the Tree, won the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Come meet this amazing author through the Summer Author program.

Young Adult Fiction: Secrets and Self Discovery, Conversation 2122
USC, Taper Hall 101

With Brandy Colbert, Claudette S. McLinn, Abdi Nazemian, and Renée Watson.

Join Robin at the North Texas Teen Book Festival on Saturday, April 21. Schedule info to come!

Join Robin and other YA authors for breakout sessions, Q&As, and author "speed dating"! 

In Robin Benway’s Far From the Tree, being the middle child has its ups and downs, but for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. In Samantha Mabry’s All the Wind in the World, a couple on the run may have to pay a frighteningly high price for their love. Charmaine Craig’s Miss Burma, based on the lives of the author’s mother and grandparents, tells the story of modern-day Burma through the eyes of one family struggling to find love, justice, and meaning during a time of war and political repression. In Erika L. Sanchez’s I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a young girl struggles to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family following the death of her sister. In Ibi Zoboi’sAmerican Street, a young Haitian immigrant adjusting to Detroit must confront a dangerous proposition.

Miami Book Fair, in partnership with the National Book Foundation and with the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, welcomes the Finalists and Winners of the prestigious National Book Foundation’s National Book Awards. Previous winners of the Award—including William Carlos Williams, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Faulkner—comprise a who’s who of American literature. Following the awards ceremony in New York City on November 15, at which the winners will be announced, all nominees, including winners and finalists in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature, will travel to Miami for this remarkable gathering of literary talent.

High school students from Miami Dade County Public Schools play the role of reporters as they direct questions to Finalists for the 2017 National Book Award in Young People's Literature. Students participating as citizen journalists have been pre-selected. This session is open to those who would like to watch the event in action!

Books of Wonder is proud to host the finalist for the National Book Awards in Young People Literature at our 18 W 18th Street store. Meet the following authors, ELANA K. ARNOLD for What Girls Are Made Of, ROBIN BENWAY for Far from the Tree, RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA for Clayton Byrd Goes Underground and IBI ZOBOI for American Street.

More info soon!

Not Your Mother's Book Club presents internationally-bestselling author Robin Benway in celebration of her stunning new novel, Far from the Tree. Robin will be in conversation with Stephanie Kuehn, author of the critically-acclaimed thriller, When I Am Through With You.

Children's Author Reception