2026 Conference Schedule

Day/Time (HST)

Event

Friday, June 5

7:00-8:30 p.m. (approximately)

OPENING FESTIVITIES

-Readings by featured authors Kristiana Kahakauwila and Kelly Murashige

-Reading by featured author/illustrator Jing Jing Tsong

-Honolulu Theatre for Youth

-Q&A with the audience

Saturday, June 6

In person and online. If online, start in the main Zoom room whenever you arrive.

8:00-8:30 a.m.

In person: Registration at Chaminade University

Virtual: Zoom orientation and networking

8:30-9:00 a.m.

WELCOME

9:00-10:00 a.m.

KEYNOTE 1: Featured author Kelly Murashige

10:00-10:15 a.m.

Break

10:15-11:30 a.m.

CREATING LITERATURE

A1  Speculative Fiction: Crafting Other Worlds

The featured authors of the 2026 Conference are teaming up to discuss the craft of speculative fiction. What is it? Why does it matter? What are the challenges, strategies, and rewards of writing about magic and fantasy? In a more process-focused version of their 2024 Conference session, the two authors will analyze how crafting a more fantastical world can illuminate real situations and emotions for young readers, underlining the importance of the speculative in children’s and teen literature.

Featured authors Kristiana Kahakauwila and Kelly Murashige

USING LITERATURE

A2  Reading as Collective Play: Aloha Talk-Story Circles, Theatre, and Meaning-Making

Explores how Aloha Talk-Story Circles and devised theatre can transform reading comprehension into a creative, participatory process. Participants will engage in a shared reading of Yangsook Choi’s The Name Jar, followed by guided talk-story prompts and simple devising structures such as creating “missing scenes” and exploring character perspective. Designed for immediate adaptation in middle and high school settings.

Zoom access may be limited. 

Terri Madden

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Lunch

12:30-1:30 p.m.

KEYNOTE 2: Featured author Kristiana Kahakauwila

1:30-1:45 p.m.

Break

1:45-3:00 p.m.

SPECIAL PROFESSIONAL SESSION

B1  Q&A: Writing Children’s Literature

Q&A with featured authors Kristiana Kahakauwila and Kelly Murashige

Free for CLH Members / $25 for Non-Members

INTERPRETING/USING LITERATURE

B2  Best Book Series for Elementary School Students

Come join students from an upper-division undergraduate English class last spring at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa that studied popular series fiction to hear them talk about the series that they have read. Wondering what the elementary school children in your life are reading or what they might be thinking about reading? Or are you perhaps wondering what series you might recommend to (or buy for) them? Or maybe you would like to share with us what series you read (or are still reading?) when you were that age. If the answer to this series of questions is “yes,” then this session is for you. After the informal presentations from Michaela, Melene, and Hachi, we will have plenty of time for audience participation. 

Panelists: Michaela Gillan, Melene Lau, Hachi Takatsuka (ENG 434 students)
Moderator: Todd H. Sammons (ENG 434 teacher)

INTERPRETING LITERATURE

B3   Mischievous, Marvelous, Magical Middle Grade Pacific Literature

Middle-grade literature by Pasifika authors is one of the fastest-growing, imaginative subsets of Pacific literature today. This session will provide an overview of notable and new titles from across Oceania, discuss recurring issues and themes, and argue that these books are important mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for ALL young readers in Oceania and beyond.    

Caryn Lesuma

3:00-3:15 p.m.

Break

3:15-4:30 p.m.

INTERPRETING LITERATURE

C1  Let’s Talk Story About the Work of Kristiana Kahakauwila and Kelly Murashige

Come learn how one of our conference's featured authors delves into Japanese mythology and urban myth (in Kelly Murashige's young adult novels The Lost Souls of Benzaiten and The Yomigaeri Tunnel) and how the other of our featured authors represents the strange situation of a young girl who all of a sudden can read the minds of her male classmates (in Kristiana Kahakauwila's middle-grade novel Clairboyance). Please note that you do not need to have read either book beforehand--but it's highly probable you will do so once you join us for this informal talk story session!

Angela D. Brown-Burchett and Caryn Lesuma

USING/CREATING LITERATURE

C2  Made in Hawaii: Fifty Years of Beloved Children’s Books

Poet and children's writer Sue Cowing will join artist and children's author/illustrator Scott Goto for a slide show and casual discussion of some of the best-loved children's books created and published in Hawai'i from the 1970s until today. Audience members are invited to share memories of reading their favorites as children and/or with their own children.  Pua Pua Lena Lena? Momotaro, Peach Boy? The B-52 Cockroach? Musubi Man? Baby Honu? Maui?

Sue Cowing and Scott Goto

4:30-5:00 p.m.

Autographs & Raffle

Sunday, June 7

In person and online. If online, start in the main Zoom room whenever you arrive.

8:00-8:45 a.m.

In person: Registration at Chaminade University

Virtual: Zoom orientation and networking

8:45-9:00 a.m.

WELCOME

9:00-10:15 a.m.

KEYNOTE 3: Featured author/illustrator Jing Jing Tsong

10:15-10:30 a.m.

Break

10:30-11:45 a.m.

SPECIAL PROFESSIONAL SESSION

D1 Q&A: Illustrating Children’s Literature

Q&A with featured author/illustrator Jing Jing Tsong

Free for CLH Members / $25 for Non-Members

INTERPRETING/USING LITERATURE

D2  Best Book Series for Middle and High School Students

Come join students from an upper-division undergraduate English class last spring at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa that studied popular series fiction to hear them talk about the series that they have read. Wondering what the middle or high school students in your life are reading or what they might be thinking about reading? Or are you perhaps wondering what series you might recommend to (or buy for) them? Or maybe you would like to share with us what series you read (or are still reading?) when you were their age. If the answer to this series of questions is “yes,” then this session is for you. After the informal presentations from Love, Isaac, and Mitch, we will have plenty of time for audience participation. 

Panelists: Love Akina, Isaac DuMaine, Mitch Roedema (ENG 434 students)
Moderator: Todd H. Sammons (ENG 434 teacher)

CREATING LITERATURE

D3  HOW STORY WORKS: A Storyteller's Myopic View

What does the spoken word give you that the written word does not? And what does the written word give us that the spoken word cannot? And what are the ways a storyteller can bring the written word to life (or not)? In this session, we will explore these basic precepts, share any ideas they bring up, and play with some simple tales to bring print to life. This will be a lively interactive, collaborative sharing. Jeff will present and tell tales, and so will you. Come talk story. You'll like it!

Jeff Gere

11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Lunch

12:00-3:00 p.m.

Story Magic (free children’s activities)

1:00-1:30 p.m.

USING/CREATING LITERATURE

Talk Story about the children’s literature field

A networking, support, discussion, and/or listening session about children's literature: current goals and issues in any aspect of the field, next steps, interesting ideas, and what the future might hold. All are welcome to attend in person or on Zoom! 

We will also be doing a raffle of book bundles from Da Shop during this session! 

1:30-3:00 p.m.

CREATING LITERATURE

NEW! The Ten-Minute Story: Teen and Adult Workshop

This hands-on session welcomes everyone from age 12 or 6th grade on up. In a Conference first, adults are invited too! We will work on developing an idea and characters for a one-page graphic panel. Jing Jing will break down the process into tiny manageable steps. She aims to give participants the tools to recognize that they are full of stories and how to share those stories visually/verbally. No experience necessary. Supplies provided while they last.

Featured author/illustrator Jing Jing Tsong

1:45-3:00 p.m.

INTERPRETING LITERATURE

E1  An Introduction to the Works of Graham Salisbury

Come discover why Children’s Literature Hawai‘i will be inducting Graham (“Sandy”) Salisbury into its Hall of Fame immediately after this session. The session will focus first on Sandy’s most well-known book, Under the Blood-Red Sun, a novel set in Hawai‘i during the dark days during and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (The novel was made into a feature-length movie of the same title in 2014; one of the movie’s earliest screenings was at our 2016 conference, when Salisbury was our featured author.) The session will then treat Night of the Howling Dogs (2007), a novel based on an actual event, the November 29, 1975, earthquake off the coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i that caused a tsunami that flooded a Boy Scout troop camping at Halape on that island. (Sandy’s cousin, Tim Twigg-Smith, was one of those Scouts.) Along the way, we will also briefly touch on Sandy’s early career as a musician and his current career as an accomplished painter.

Todd H. Sammons

USING LITERATURE

E2  The Power of Picture Books to Promote Prosocial Behavior: A Tale of Two Harolds

Through an exploration of two children’s literature picture books—one classic, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955), and one contemporary, Harold Loves His Woolly Hat by Verne Koursky (2018)—this session proposes to model the effectiveness of children’s literature picture books in inciting change in readers’ self-understanding and emotional well-being.

Angela D. Brown-Burchett

3:00-3:15 p.m.

Break

3:15-4:30 p.m.

Closing Celebration

-Children's Art and Writing Contest Awards

-CLH Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for distinguished author and artist Graham Salisbury. Also in attendance will be our previous Hall of Fame inductee James Rumford. 

4:30-5:00 p.m.

Autographs & Raffle