2026 Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature, March 20, 2026 ~ Student Participant

57th Annual Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature

Dates: March 20, 2026

Schedule: Registration starts at 7:30 a.m., sessions begin at 8:30 a.m.

Location: UGA Hotel and Conference Center, 1197 S. Lumpkin Street, Athens, GA

Description: The Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature draws hundreds of teachers, school media specialists, public librarians, authors, illustrators, and children’s literature scholars from the Southeast and beyond. Join us for the 57th Georgia Conference, where we will surely have an exciting line-up of keynote speakers, workshop sessions, and a diverse offering of break-out sessions. Additionally, the winners of the 2026 Georgia Children’s Book Award will be announced!

Keynote Speakers:

Monica Arnaldo
Monica Arnaldo is a Canadian author and illustrator known for her warm, humorous picture books. Born in Ontario and raised in Ottawa, she studied illustration at Sheridan College and now lives near Montreal. Her work blends traditional and digital techniques to bring characters vividly to life. She is the creator of Time for Bed’s Story, Are You a Cheeseburger?, and Margo Thinks Twice. Her book, Mr. S, won the 2025 Georgia Children’s Book Award (K–4).

Matthew J. Burgess
Matthew Burgess is a poet, educator, and author of celebrated children’s books, including Fireworks, Words With Wings and Magic Things, and Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring. He edited the anthology Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space and the essay collection Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry. An Associate Professor at Brooklyn College and former NYC public school poetry teacher, he is also senior editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine. Upcoming books include Mungo On His Own, Serafina Makes Waves, and If The Moon (2026).

Torrey Maldonado
Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook projects and has taught in New York City public schools for over twenty-five years. His fast-paced, compelling stories draw from his and his students’ experiences. Author of What Lane?, Tight, and Secret Saturdays, his latest novel Hands won the 2025 Georgia Children’s Book Award (Grades 4–8). A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, Hands was also named a Best New Book of 2023. Torrey returns as a keynote for our conference for the second time.

Doug Salati
Doug Salati is the creator of Hot Dog, winner of the 2023 Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Ezra Jack Keats Award, and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Public Library. He illustrated Tomie dePaola’s In a Small Kingdom and Matthew Farina’s Lawrence in the Fall, an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award Honoree. A 2015 Sendak Fellow, Salati lives and works in New York City.

Costs:

Participant: (includes conference sessions, handouts, lunch and refreshment breaks)
On or before February 12th: $284
February 13th or later: $304

Student Participant: $124 (includes conference sessions, handouts, lunch and refreshment breaks)

Student Participant without Lunch: $104 (includes conference sessions, handouts and refreshment breaks)

Presenter-Participant on or before January 30: If you are presenting at the conference, AND you register on or before January 30, 2025, you receive an additional discount off the registration fee! The Presenter-Participant rate is $254 and includes conference sessions, handouts, lunch and refreshment breaks.

Student Presenter-Participant on or before January 30: $108 (includes conference sessions, handouts, lunch and refreshment breaks)

Student Presenter-Participant without Lunch on or before January 30: $91 (includes conference sessions, handouts and refreshment breaks)

Hotel Reservations: A block of hotel rooms is being held at the UGA Hotel and Conference Center. The hotel rate is $119 per night for a room with one queen or two double beds. The deadline to make a hotel reservation with the group block is February 20, 2026. To make a reservation, call the Georgia Center directly at 800-884-1381 or 706-542-2134 or register online at reservations.hotel.uga.edu. Please use Group ID number 6244 when making the reservation.

Registration & Cancellation Deadline: March 12, 2026

Cancellation and Refund Policy: All cancellations must be submitted via email to mbaer@uga.edu before the cancellation deadline in order to receive a full refund. Cancellations after the cancellation deadline are non-refundable. If cancellation is not made by the deadline, and you are not able to attend, you or your organization is still liable for payment.

Registration Transfer: If you have registered for an event but cannot attend, you may transfer your registration to another person. Simply email 48 hours before the event to mbaer@uga.edu with the registration information of the person who will attend.

Accessibility Requests: Please contact Melanie Baer, mbaer@uga.edu or Beth Massey, bmassey@uga.edu to request the following: sign language interpreter, assistive listening device, large print, audio, or Braille. The deadline to request services is March 1, 2026.

Payment Information

Paying by check: If you choose to pay by check by submitting a purchase order, the amount due will adjust to $0.00 because you haven't actually paid anything yet. We will send an official invoice by email showing the amount due and the address to mail payment so that you can submit for payment. Checks should be made payable to “UGA”.

Paying by UGA General Ledger Journal Entry: If you are a UGA faculty or staff member and are paying by departmental journal entry, the amount due will adjust to $0.00 because you haven't actually paid anything yet. Please enter the name, phone number and email address of the person responsible for the funds (chartstring) you are using to pay for the registration fee so we can work with them to make the journal entry. Registration will not be confirmed until we have this information.

Invoice procedure for everyone paying by check/PO or UGA Journal Entry: Invoices will be sent a few days after the registration is confirmed. When you successfully complete the registration process, you will receive two emails from Melanie Baer (mbaer@uga.edu). One to let you know the registration has been received and a second when it is confirmed. A few days later, you will receive an email from Lori Robbins (lori.robbins@uga.edu) including a copy of the official invoice and the payment address. Please don’t remit payment until you receive the email from Lori Robbins as sometimes checks are sent to the wrong UGA office by mistake. This process often takes up to 5 business days to complete.

Paying by credit card: Credit cards sometimes aren’t processed until a few days after you submit the registration in Marketplace. Please make sure the card number is correct, the billing zip code matches the billing address for the card and the card isn’t expired, or expiring in the next few days. If the credit card doesn’t go through for some reason, you will have to re-submit the registration.