Join us for an evening with Christina Soontornvat, award-winning author, engineer, STEM educator, New York Times bestselling author, and three-time Newbery Honoree. Her work for young readers spans picture books, chapter books, middle grade fiction, nonfiction, and graphic storytelling.

Her acclaimed books include A Wish in the Dark, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team, The Last Mapmaker, and The Tryout. Across genres, Soontornvat writes about courage, identity, justice, family, discovery, and belonging, often bringing together careful research, vivid storytelling, and a deep respect for young readers.

At this special event, Soontornvat will reflect on her creative journey, her path from engineering and STEM education to children’s literature, and the craft of writing across fiction, nonfiction, and graphic forms. She will discuss how curiosity, research, lived experience, and imagination shape her work, and how books can help young people see themselves and ask new questions. The program includes a keynote lecture, audience Q&A, and a book signing reception.

The Spencer G. Shaw Lecture is free and open to the public, with in-person and virtual options available.

Each year, the University of Washington Information School hosts a lecture established in Spencer Shaw's honor. This lecture takes place every October and features a leading figure in children's literature who will speak to library students, teachers, librarians, alumni, community members and more.

Famed authors and illustrators such as Tom Feelings, Maurice Sendak, Ashley Bryan, Margaret Mahy, Gary Soto, Laurence Yep, Theodore Taylor, Susan Cooper, Katherine Paterson, Milton Meltzer, Jerry Pinkney and Jason Reynolds have participated. 

This lecture series is endowed to honor Spencer Shaw in perpetuity to continue to attract the best authors and illustrators in the field to lecture at the University of Washington.