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University of Washington Information School

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Spencer G. Shaw Endowed Lecture Series

  1. People
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  3. Spencer G. Shaw Lecture

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.

2022 Lecturer

Joseph BruchacJoseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac is writer, musician and traditional storyteller. An enrolled member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation and a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Elders Council, Bruchac is the author of over 170 books in many genres. His poems, essays and stories have appeared in hundreds of anthologies and magazines ranging from Akwesasne Notes and Parabola to the Paris Review, Cricket, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and National Geographic. His book Keepers of the Earth books (co-written with Michael Caduto), which uses traditional American Indian stories to teach science, has sold over a million copies. In 2021 his novel Code Talker was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best YA books of all time, and his novel in verse Rez Dogs was listed as one of the best books of 2021 by NPR. His newest book, A Peacemaker for Warring Nations, illustrated by Mohawk artist David Kanietakeron Fadden, tells the timely story of the founding of the Great League of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).

Learn more

About Spencer G. Shaw (1916-2010)

Spencer Shaw speaks with a group of childrenSpencer Shaw picked his profession by the time he reached high school. Books and reading were important parts of his family life, and so was the Northwest Branch of the Hartford, Connecticut, Public Library.

“I was impressed with the work of the librarians and the services they rendered to the public,” he remembered. “Librarian Desier Moulton made it a welcomed place for the whole neighborhood. On Saturday mornings we gathered for the weekly story hours, where we were introduced to rich sources of folk literature from around the world. That’s what I admired.”

Shaw carried on that tradition during a nearly seven-decade career as a public librarian, educator and world-renowned expert on storytelling and library service to children. The American Library Association called him an “authentic and forthright spokesperson for children and youth librarians, contributing enormously in motivating and guiding the nation’s youth.”

Read more about Shaw in this 2005 profile.

Previous Spencer Shaw Lecturers

Yuyi Morales

Yuyi Morales
Oct. 14, 2021 
"Our Stories, Our Pages"

Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick
Oct. 29, 2020 
"The road to 'Hugo'"

Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds
Oct. 31, 2019 
"These Three Words"

Sharon Draper

Sharon Draper
Oct. 2, 2018
"Blending Story, Symphony and Spirit"

Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle
Oct. 19, 2017 
"Prose and Poetry"

M.T. Anderson

M.T. Anderson
Nov. 9, 2016 
"The Past is Another Country: They Do Things Differently There"

Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson
Oct. 22, 2015 
"The Art of Storytelling"

Grace Lin

Grace Lin
Nov. 6, 2014 
"Path of a Multicultural Author and Illustrator"

Jack Gantos

Jack Gantos
Nov. 7, 2013 
"It's All Personal"

Christopher Paul Curtis

Christopher Paul Curtis
Oct. 25, 2012 
"How to Construct an Author"

Pam Muños Ryan

Pam Muños Ryan
Oct. 27, 2011 
"Why I Read and Why I Write: The Cloud with a Silver Lining"

Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen
Oct. 16, 2010 
"On the Slant"

Patricia C. McKissack

Patricia C. McKissack
Feb. 25, 2010 
"On the Front Porch of My Mind: Stories and Where the Stories Came From"

Gerald McDermott

Gerald McDermott
Nov. 19, 2008 
"Heroes & Tricksters: A Mythic Journey"

Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers
Oct. 24, 2007 
"Books & Boys: Making It Work!"

Richard Peck

Richard Peck
Nov. 15, 2006 
"Voices in an Empty Room: Five Apologies for the Narrative"

Spencer Shaw

Spencer Shaw
Nov. 16, 2005 
"Taking the Road Less Traveled"

Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney
Nov. 18, 2004 
"A Sense of Place: Narratives Real and Imaginary"

Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson
Nov. 19, 2003 
"The Left-Behind Child"

Gary Soto

Gary Soto
Oct. 3, 2002 
"The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy"

Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan
Oct. 20, 2000 
"A Tender Bridge: Black American Poetry, Spirituals and African Folktales"

Tom Feelings

Tom Feelings
Oct. 12, 1998 
"Illustration is My Form, the Black Experience My Story and My Content"

Theodore Taylor

Theodore Taylor
1993-94 
Author of Timothy of the Cay

Laurence Yep

Laurence Yep
Oct. 29, 1991 
"My Father's Watch"

Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper
Nov. 2, 1990 
"In Defense of Books"

Milton Meltzer

Milton Meltzer
Nov. 3, 1989 
"From Biography to Autobiography"

Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak
Oct. 28, 1988 
"The Creative Process"

Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy
1986 

 

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News

Akshita Gundavarapu, Emily Smokoff, Erica Gordy, Audrey Dennis, Meghan Munagala.

Informatics students make climate data easier to visualize

Thursday, June 1, 2023
Climate change is a complex problem, and it's hard to grasp exactly how much carbon people are putting into the atmosphere. Policymakers who are trying to cut carbon emissions, however, need a good understanding of the current situation to...
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Pournami Varma (left) presents a poster on “Using Family Health Informatics to Improve Asthma.”

Informatics students show their work at research symposium

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Fifteen Information School students presented their research at the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium on May 19. They were among more than 1,000 students participating from across the University of Washington.  One of the...
Read more

Events

Jun 7
 
4:00-5:00PM

Informatics Program Overview for Future UW Seattle Freshman and Current High School Students

Zoom / Online
Jun 7
 
6:00-7:00PM

MSIM Program Overview

Virtual / Zoom
Jun 9
 
9:00-11:00AM

Dissertation Proposal Defense - Justin Petelka

Zoom
Jun 9
 
3:00-4:00PM

MLIS Law Librarianship Information Session

Zoom / Online
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