Spencer G. Shaw Endowed Lecture Series
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.
2023 Lecturer
Nic Stone
Nic Stone has dedicated her life to writing the stories she needed when she was younger — the stories that make us feel seen, represented, and ready to connect with others. She didn’t read about characters who looked like her or who came from her world in her childhood books, and she wanted to bring her own story, and the stories of people like her, to life. She’ll teach you how the stories you read shape the way you see the world and the people in it, reminding us that we all have our own authentic story to share.
Stone has put her passionate convictions into practice in her award-winning novels, which have been lauded by NPR (her books have appeared twice on NPR’s Best Books of the Year list), The Atlantic, and Publishers Weekly. Nic’s #1 New York Times bestseller "Dear Martin" was a William C. Morris Award Finalist and was called "an unforgettable tour de force of social justice" by Booklist. The Horn Book has lauded how Nic’s writing—which includes blockbusters "Dear Justyce," "Odd One Out," "Jackpot," and "Clean Getaway"—"carries the weight of history" as much as it is memorable, beautiful, and captivating.
About Spencer G. Shaw (1916-2010)
Spencer 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
Joseph Bruchac | Yuyi Morales | Brian Selznick | Jason Reynolds |
Sharon Draper | Margarita Engle | M.T. Anderson | Kadir Nelson |
Grace Lin | Jack Gantos | Christopher Paul Curtis | Pam Muños Ryan |
Jane Yolen | Patricia C. McKissack | Gerald McDermott | Walter Dean Myers |
Richard Peck | Spencer Shaw | Jerry Pinkney | Katherine Paterson |
Gary Soto | Ashley Bryan | Tom Feelings | Theodore Taylor |
Laurence Yep | Susan Cooper | Milton Meltzer | Maurice Sendak |
Margaret Mahy |