Spending time with Authors!

I have been spending the past few days at the American Library Association conference in Washington, DC.  While I have been busy in my award committee meetings talking about the Best Fiction published for teens this year (there are definitely some winners and losers in my opinion), I have also had time to meet, hang out, and have dinner with some great authors!

I have talked with/gotten books signed by Jon Scieszka (my hero!), Kadir Nelson, and Laurie Halse Anderson (even a signed copy of Chains for you, Ms. Buffa).  Saturday night I had dinner with and got to listen to several authors speak about their newest titles.  It was a great way to spend my birthday!

Laurie Halse Anderson (talking about Wintergirls; though her sequel to Chains is coming out this fall and I have a copy of that also!)
John Barnes (Tales of the Madman Underground)
Ally Condie (Matched, debut author)
Andrea Cremer (Nightshade, debut author)
John Green and David Levithan (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)
David Small (Elise's Bird, a picture book)
Rosemary Wells (Max & Ruby, picture book)
Nancy Werlin (Extraordinary; Ms. LaBrie is first in line to read this)
Jacqueline Woodson (Pecan Pie Baby, picture book.  But she is also the author of many popular books at EJH)

A fun evening, and I got to sit next to David Levithan the entire evening.  If you haven't read his books, you may not appreciate how lucky I was, but my librarian friends are jealous!