Keynote Speakers

Keynote: Lee Bennett Hopkins
Q/A session to follow Keynote Presentation

Lee Bennett Hopkins is a prolific writer of books for adults and children.  He is one of the leading writers and anthologists of poetry. He is the namesake and founder of Lee Bennett Hopkins / Penn State University Award for Children’s Poetry, and Lee Bennett Hopkins / International Reading Association Promising New Poet Award. He has won numerous awards and honors for his writing including the 2009 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) “Excellence in Poetry for Children,” the 1995 Christopher Award, and the 1996 Golden Kite Honor Book Award for his autobiographical poetry collection Been to Yesterdays.  Recent works include I Am the Book, Sharing the Seasons, Amazing Faces, City I Love, and Incredible Inventions.
Visit http://www.leebennetthopkins.com/

Keynote: Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire is the author of a number of novels for children, eight adult novels, and several short stories, picture books, essays and reviews. His children’s novels include: What-the-Dickens (a New York Times Bestseller 2007), Missing Sisters, and Oasis. The Hamlet Chronicles: Seven Spiders Spinning, Six Haunted Hairdos, Five Alien Elves, Four Stupid Cupids, Three Rotten Eggs, A Couple of April Fools, One Final Firecracker, The Good Liar, The Dream Stealer, I Feel Like the Morning Star, Lights on the Lake, The Daughter of the Moon, The Lightning Time His adult novels include Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Son of a Witch, a Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz, the four volumes of The Wicked Years, and all four New York Times bestsellers, as well as national bestsellers Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and The Next Queen of Heaven. The combined book sales of these eight volumes approaches ten million copies. Praised by John Updike in the New Yorker as “an amazing novel,” Wicked has inspired a musical currently playing in three American venues, as well as in London, Japan, the Pacific Rim, and the Netherlands. Music and lyrics are by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, The Prince of Egypt, etc.) and book is by Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life, etc.).

Panelist:  Bill Farnsworth

a 1980 graduate of The Ringling School of Art and Design, Bill Farnsworth has spent the last thirty years creating paintings for magazines, advertisements, children’s books, and fine art commissions of portraits and landscapes. Born in Norwalk Connecticut in 1958, Bill spent most of his life in New Milford Connecticut painting landscapes of the rural area, while supporting himself and family with his growing illustration career. A Signature member of The Oil Painters of America and The American Society of Marine Artists, Farnsworth’s paintings have appeared in many national shows and private collections throughout the United States. A nationally known illustrator, Bill has illustrated more than fifty books for Children, and many have won awards as well as starred reviews in Publishers Weekly.  A prolific Gallery painter, Bill has seamlessly moved into the Fine Art field where he has garnered awards of excellence from the Oil Painters of America  2006, 2007, 2011 Eastern Regional shows and the 2007 National show. He won first place in the Fifth Biennial National Show in Punta Gorda, and won two awards for Narrative Excellence from The National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society. Bill won Best in Show in the 2010 Cashiers paint out. In 2010 Bill was awarded Signature Status from The American Society of Marine Artists. In 2011 he was awarded Signature Status from The Oil Painters of America.“My goal with my work is to paint what I love and convey that honestly so the viewer can feel that as well". Bill currently lives with his wife Debbie in Venice, Florida.