See, hear Katherine Paterson, Audrey Assad at Walking on Water Conference

Dear Ones,

Katherine Paterson and Audrey Assad! Are! Coming! And — you’re invited!

I needed to shout that news across the internet. This fall’s first Madeleine L’Engle “Walking on Water” Conference will feature these two creative minds in big ways. (!!)

First, let’s talk music: Award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad will be Musician-in-Residence at the conference!

Assad is an author, speaker, record producer, and critically lauded songwriter and musician living in Nashville, Tenn. She releases music she calls “soundtracks for prayer” on her label Fortunate Fall Records. L’Engle fans will recognize that a  number of her tracks have some L’Engle influences (like “The Irrational Season”).

You’ll hear her during the opening general session on Saturday, Nov. 16, and then later that day she’ll lead a “Music & Madeleine” discussion. She’s also a panelist for a conversation about “Listening to the Work,” along with artists Albert Pedulla and Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, moderated by Seth Little.

Til the conference, you can keep up with Audrey on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Second, feast those eyes on our keynote speaker: Katherine Paterson.

She’s the author of more than 30 books, including 16 novels for children and young people. She has twice won the Newbery Medal, for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. The Master Puppeteer won the National Book Award in 1977 and The Great Gilly Hopkins won the National Book Award in 1979 and was also a Newbery Honor Book. For the body of her work she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1998, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2006, the E.B. White Award in 2019 and in 2000 was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

As one does.

She is a vice president of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and is a member of the board of trustees for Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also an honorary lifetime member of the International Board of Books for Young People and an Alida Cutts lifetime member of the US section, USBBY. She is the 2010-2011 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

The Patersons have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Katherine currently resides in Vermont with her faithful dog, Pixie. Find her on Facebook and Goodreads — and her words in the stack of modern classics at your library.

SO.  We’ll just be over here until the conference, giddy and excited.

Conference co-director (and L’Engle scholar) Sarah Arthur previously announced details about registration, a pre-conference retreat, and more — check out those details here. The Walking on Water Conference is Nov. 15-16, at All Angels’ Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Tesser well,

Erin F. Wasinger for MadeleineLEngle.com.