Dear Colleagues:

Right now—today, right after I finish writing this note—I’m teaching Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X in my junior/senior English seminar on Race & Representation in YA Literature. If you don’t know this award-winning novel in verse, I highly recommend it. In brief, powerful vignettes, the novel depicts a fifteen-year-old Dominican girl’s sophomore year in high school: her conflicts with her over-protective Catholic mother, the hypersexualization and harassment she encounters from men in school and on the street, and the development of her poetic voice. My students are knocked out by the power of the poetry, the honesty of its depiction of sexual harassment and microaggression, the refusal to exoticize its Afro-Latinx protagonists. I hope that those of you who teach are having similarly enlivening experiences right now, whatever you are engaged with: for me, it’s what makes it all worthwhile. And The Poet X is one of those books I first heard about from you, my colleagues. Indeed, my entire syllabus is an homage to ChLA, filled with books I learned about in your talks and articles, or in conversations among conference-goers or committee members. So thank you: you are making my spring semester sing.

I hope we can do the same for you. As you probably know, ChLA is in a period of transition: we have not had a full-time association manager since last summer, have not had an in-person conference since 2019, and have spent the last year working with a DEI consulting firm. Things feel a little shaky at times. But our core values are solid: inclusivity, diversity, integrity, development, and celebration remain at the heart of what we do. As we move forward towards the conference in June, the Board and Executive Committee continue to keep those values in mind. They helped guide our decision to approve a pilot program, brought to us by the Diversity Committee, to waive conference registration fees for a small number of first-time attendees who are Black and Indigenous scholars and students from the conference’s area, as well as scholars and students who teach at or attend Atlanta-area HBCUs or Indigenous colleges. We hope to be able to expand this program in the future. It is a small step, but one we are happy to be able to make even in the midst of economic uncertainty, as it reflects both our core values and acknowledges the importance of diversifying our membership. My deep thanks to Michelle Pagni Stewart, Diversity Committee Chair; Cristina Rhodes, Diversity Committee Liaison; and the entire Diversity Committee for bringing this proposal to the Board.

There’s more news as well:
● Starting this month, we have a new Association Manager, Steve Gigantiello. Steve has over twenty years of relevant experience, including association management experience with Meeting Expectations. He will be working 50% time with ChLA, initially supporting Kelly Johnson and working especially on conference planning. After June he will transition to more association management duties. Email to [email protected] reaches both him and Kelly, who also continues to support us–and who has our gratitude for her generous assistance in this long-term “interim” position!

● ChLA is also happy to announce our new ChLA Conversations series, an initiative of the Communications Committee (formerly the Publicity Committee). Many of you will remember the exciting Black YA and the Arcade event at our June 2021 conference; our new series follows from that and will be continuing on a bimonthly basis. The first episode features African American Authors in Conversation and was, like the Black YA and the Arcade event, organized by Tiffany A. Flowers. Thanks to Tiffany and the Communications Committee for organizing this great series!

● This month we closed out our contract with Momentum Partnership, the DEI Consultants we engaged last year. Some of you may have been interviewed by one of their associates, and over 100 of you responded to the DEI survey they administered for us—thank you! Our Steering Committee now takes on the important work of reviewing the three reports we have received from Momentum (one each on the interviews, the survey, and their review of our website and governance documents), so that we can move forward with our strategic planning process, informed by these documents and our meetings with the consultants.

● Soon you will be receiving your ballot for next year’s Executive Committee, Board, and committee members. Thank you to the Nominations & Elections committee for their hard work in developing a diverse slate of candidates, and to all of you, in advance, for participating in the election. ChLA does the majority of its work in committees, and committee members work hard throughout the year, so our elections are vital to our ongoing development.

● I hope everyone is also getting excited for our conference in Atlanta, June 2-4. Abstract and roundtable acceptances went out earlier this week; please make sure you send in your presenter information form by March 18. I very much look forward to seeing you in person in Atlanta!

● Finally, please also note that we are welcoming pedagogy poster submissions until March 18. If you have been on the fence about this, please do consider submitting a proposal for a pedagogy poster. These were very well received at the 2021 virtual conference, and offer an opportunity for even more of the generous interactions around teaching that have been a hallmark of every ChLA conference I’ve attended. If you’ve always loved the syllabus swap, but want more of that, please consider submitting a pedagogy poster about that one weird trick you have for teaching children’s lit—I promise, I'll be there to check it out!

In fact, if you have a weird trick for teaching YA literature, or novels in verse, drop me a line right now—I’m always looking for new tips and tricks. And please, keep in touch. I love hearing from you.

Warmly,

Elisabeth Gruner
ChLA President, 2021-2022