{"id":409,"date":"2025-06-28T15:25:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/?page_id=409"},"modified":"2025-11-11T22:09:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:09:52","slug":"keynote-speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/keynote-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynote Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"409\" class=\"elementor elementor-409\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a84a6b8 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"a84a6b8\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f98439b e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"f98439b\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e266422 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"e266422\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1151\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds-768x1151.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-image-616\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jason-Reynolds.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8b0bf1d e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"8b0bf1d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-991df94 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"991df94\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2><strong>Opening Keynote<\/strong><br \/><strong>Jason Reynolds<\/strong><\/h2><p><strong>Thursday, October 8, 2026<\/strong><br \/>Location:\u00a0 First Interstate Center for the Arts<\/p><p>Jason Reynolds is a #1 <em>New York Times<\/em> bestselling author of many award-winning books, including <em>Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks<\/em>, <em>All American Boys <\/em>(with Brendan Kiely), <em>Long Way Down<\/em>, <em>Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You<\/em> (with Ibram X. Kendi), <em>Stuntboy, in the Meantime <\/em>(illustrated by Ra\u00fal the Third), and <em>Ain\u2019t Burned All the Bright<\/em>(with artwork by Jason Griffin). The recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, an NAACP Image Award, and multiple Coretta Scott King honors, Reynolds is also the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature.<\/p><p>He has appeared on <em>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>, <em>The Daily Show with Trevor Noah<\/em>,<em> Late Night with Seth Meyers<\/em>, <em>CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America<\/em>, and various media outlets. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7bccd8d e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"7bccd8d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0c7e293 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"0c7e293\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-37870cd elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"37870cd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2><strong>Closing Keynote Speaker <br \/>Kelly Yang<\/strong><\/h2><p><strong>Sunday, October 11, 2026<\/strong><br \/>Location: First Interstate Center for the Arts.<\/p><p>Kelly Yang is the #1 <em>New York Times<\/em> bestselling author of the Front Desk series, <em>New From Here, Finally Seen, Finally Heard,<\/em> young adult novels <em>Parachutes<\/em> and <em>Private Label<\/em> and picture books <em>Yes We Will<\/em> and <em>Little Bird Laila.<\/em> Her books have earned multiple awards, including the 2019 APALA Award for Children\u2019s Literature, the Strega Prize for Literature, have been named one of the Best Books of the 21st Century by Kirkus, and have featured on multiple best of the year lists.<\/p><p>In addition to being a novelist, she has written screenplays and television pilots for Netflix, CBS Studios, and the CW. Kelly immigrated to the United States when she was six years old and grew up in Southern California. She went to college at the age of 13 and is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School, an experience that provides her a unique perspective on aging. <em>The Take<\/em> is her first adult novel.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f294450 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"f294450\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-19d7071 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"19d7071\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1152\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-768x1152.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-image-617\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kelly-Yang_hi-res_credit-Richard-Knapp-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opening KeynoteJason Reynolds Thursday, October 8, 2026Location:\u00a0 First Interstate Center for the Arts Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of many&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-409","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"campaignId":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/409\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jclcinc.org\/conference\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}