Grace Lin, and Alvina Ling delivered the 2022 Charlotte Zolotow Lecture, on Thursday, October 20, at the Great Hall of the Memorial Union, on the UW-Madison campus in Madison.
Friends since childhood, Grace Lin and Alvina Ling have each helped shape the world of contemporary children’s books, Grace as an author and illustrator, Alvina as an editor.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Charlotte Zolotow Lecture, and in recognition of Charlotte’s career as both a writer and editor of books for children, we’ve invited Grace and Alvina, cohosts of Book Friends Forever, an entertaining, insightful podcast about children’s book publishing, to talk about some of the things important to them as they engage in the serious work of creating books for children and teens in our world today. They will talk about their parallel lives, from their childhood friendship to their relationship as author and illustrator, how fear has shaped their lives and work, and how their friendship has helped them thrive both professionally and personally.
Grace Lin has created more than 20 books for children to-date in an already-distinguished career that includes a Newbery honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and a Caldecott honor for A Big Mooncake for Little Star, in addition to being the most recent recipient of the ALA/ALSC Legacy Award for “significant and lasting contributions to children’s literature.” Alvina is Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, bringing her vision and insight to editing children’s books for all ages.