The ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas has drawn to a close, and what a whirlwind of activity it was! More than 13,000 attendees were there to explore the over 2,500 presentations, meetings, and discussion groups, and exhibits available during the event. Over the next few days, we’ll be posting lots of great coverage of YA lit events at ALA Annual, so stay tuned– even if you couldn’t make it this time, you’ll feel like you were there too!
I’m kicking off our event coverage by setting the stage with some scenes from around the conference.
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!
Attendees at the Odyssey Award Ceremony were given a terrifying Scowler mask as seen on the cover of this year’s Odyssey Award winning audiobook Scowler, written by Daniel Kraus and narrated by Kirby Heyborne, and were encouraged to take and share a #scowlerselfie!
The Exhibit Hall
There’s always an enthusiastic crowd waiting to enter the Exhibit Hall on Friday evening. Not gonna lie– the thought of this sea of people rushing in to explore the vendors’ booths was more than a little terrifying. But it went surprisingly smoothly once the doors opened, and there were lots of great books to see and learn about at the publishers’ booths.
#DiversityatALA
In the days leading up to the conference, we reported about the #DiversityatALA movement, and I’m pleased to say I saw lots of intriguing titles featuring diversity of all types, including cultural, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. I talked to publicists at a wide variety of publishers’ booths, and every single one had great recommendations for me when I inquired about their upcoming diverse titles. It was exciting! I very much got the sense that we will be seeing more diverse YA lit in the coming seasons.
Here are some other ALA attendees’ experiences with #DiversityatALA:
Sharing Personal Expression
One of the fun things to see at ALA conferences is the Graffiti #UnWall, where attendees are invited to write anything they like. It’s a free space for librarians, library workers, library supporters, and book lovers to come together and visibly share their enthusiasm for everything libraries stand for, make collaborative jokes, or just jot down their happy thought for the day.
Recharging
There was a lot of this going on at the conference… and of course, stopping to charge your phone is also an opportunity for networking and conversation– and sharing about what ARCs you picked up that you’re most looking forward to reading!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Hub Bloggers
These are some of the people who make The Hub such a great resource for YA literature– and we want to thank YOU for reading our posts and sharing our love of books!
We’ll have more posts coming soon about ALA Annual in Vegas. In the meantime, mark your 2015 calendars for June 15-30 for ALA Annual in San Francisco!
-Allison Tran, currently reading Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
