NH Book Festival: Middle Grade Fantasy Spotlight

This spotlight program will be held on the KidLit Stage in the NH Book Festival Village on South Main Street, beginning at 11:40am on Saturday, 10/5/2024. It will be moderated by Erin Bowman and will feature: 

Kekla Magoon writes novels and nonfiction books for children and teens, often on themes of identity, community, empowerment and social justice. Acclaimed titles include The Season of Styx Malone, The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People. Kekla received the 2021 Margaret A. Edwards Award, a body of work recognition for her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. She is also a recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, a Michael L. Printz Honor, four Coretta Scott King Honors, two Walter Award Honors, and an NAACP Image Award, in addition to being a finalist for the National Book Award. Kekla holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she is also faculty emerita.

M. T. Anderson is the author of Feed, a National Book Award Finalist; the National Book Award winner The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, both volumes of which were Michael L. Printz Honor Books; Symphony for the City of the Dead; Yvain: The Knight of the Lion; Landscape with Invisible Hand; and many other books for children and young adults, including The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, cocreated with Eugene Yelchin, which was a National Book Award Finalist. M. T. Anderson lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Photo by Carter Hasegawa

Lisa Stringfellow is the author of two middle grade fantasies, Kingdom of Dust and A Comb of Wishes, which Newbery Award–winning author Kelly Barnhill called “one of the most promising works of fiction in a long time.” Lisa writes for her twelve-year-old self, the kid waiting to be the brown-skinned hero of an adventure, off saving the world. Lisa’s work often reflects her West Indian and Black southern heritage. She received the inaugural Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Manuscript Award for a draft of her first novel, A Comb of Wishes, which was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist, an Indies Introduce Top Ten title, an Indie Next List selection, and a New England Booksellers Association Book Award Finalist. Author P. Djèlí Clark calls her West African–inspired middle grade novel, Kingdom of Dust, “A fascinating fairy tale of memory, the power of storytelling, and magic!” She is a middle school teacher and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her children and bossy cat.

 The NH Book Festival begins in 14 Days!