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.
2025 Lecturer
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith is a New York Times bestselling author, 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate, and founding author‑curator of Heartdrum, a Native‑focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books. A proud citizen of the Muscogee (Mvskoke) Nation, Smith has spent more than two decades shaping children’s, and YA literature through her own storytelling, mentorship, and advocacy. Her acclaimed work including Hearts Unbroken, Harvest House, Sisters of the Neversea, and the anthology Ancestor Approved illuminates themes of identity, belonging, resilience, and community. She is a 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award candidate, 2024 Southern Miss Medallion winner, and Texas Literary Hall of Fame inductee, and she will deliver the 2026 ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Children’s Literature lecture.
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
 Christian Robinson |  Nic Stone |  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 |