AFCC 2022 Lectures

AFCC 2022 LECTURES

绘本为何有帮助孩子爱上阅读的魔力？(Why Are Picture Books Useful in Developing a Love for Reading in Children? )

Date: 26 May (Thursday)

Time: 1.30pm to 3pm (SGT)

Format: Online

Featuring: 阿甲 (Ajia)

绘本最厉害的地方是它能帮助孩子爱上阅读。其中的秘密在于它最适合的阅读方式恰好能连接孩子和书、连接大人与孩子、连接人与人。作为特殊的“桥梁”，绘本阅读在家庭、学校和社区都能广泛应用，帮助人们在孩子学习和生活的环境中构建适宜的阅读生态。

Hear from Ajia, a well-known figure in the Chinese children’s literature scene, on how to maximise the picture book as an educational tool. In this lecture, find out exactly why picture books are beneficial and how to cultivate the love for reading in children.

This session is conducted in Mandarin.

This lecture can be attended as part of the Festival Pass or via a separate lecture ticket.

Finding the Light: Hope and Despair in Children’s Literature

Date: 27 May (Friday)

Time: 9am to 10.30am (SGT)

Format: Online

Featuring: Margarita Engle

Amidst the troubles experienced by the world, from the pandemic, to environmental disasters to war and destruction, it can be difficult to find the silver lining among the storm clouds hovering overhead. In this lecture, hear from award-winning author Margarita Engle on how she envisions books as a refuge, and the important lessons that they can offer to readers.

The Role of Stories: Why We Write for Children

Date: 28 May (Saturday)

Time: 6pm to 7.30pm (SGT)

Format: Online

Featuring: Piers Torday

Join award-winning middle grade writer Piers Torday as he unpacks the importance and function of stories in nurturing the development of children in this lecture. Hear from him as he delves into the creative process of writing stories with a purpose.

This lecture can be attended as part of the Festival Pass or via a separate lecture ticket.

Of Women and Girls: A Study of the Female Figure in Korean Children and YA Literature

Date: 29 May (Sunday)

Time: 4pm to 5.30pm (SGT)

Format: Online

Featuring: Lee Geum-yi

In a society which prioritises the male perspective, the female lived experience is more often than not written out of the central narrative. Celebrated children’s and YA author Lee Geum-Yi brings that perspective to the forefront in her works, writing about sensitive topics such as teenagers’ sexual issues and teenage motherhood. Find out more in this lecture how she chooses to wrestle with these heavy topics in a genre that many in Korean society consider taboo.

This lecture can be attended as part of the Festival Pass or via a separate lecture ticket.

Shifting Perceptions: Translating Stories From Languages Other Than English

Date: 29 May (Sunday)

Time: 3.30pm to 5pm (SGT)

Format: Online

Featuring: Avery Fischer Udagawa

In this lecture, 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder awardee, Avery Fischer Udagawa, speaks out on the prevalence of anglocentrism in children’s literature. She shares her perspective why we should shift more attention to books being authored in Languages Other Than English, especially underrepresented languages, and how we can all do our part to change the industry’s perception of translated works.

About the Speakers

阿甲，出生于1971年，现居北京。中国的童书作家、翻译家、阅读推广人，也是一位颇受欢迎的说故事人。作为独立研究者，他曾著有《图画书小史》、《帮助孩子爱上阅读：儿童阅读推广手册》等；作为图画书创作者，其作品有《李娜：做更好的自己》（郁蓉 绘）、《画马》（戴敦邦 绘）、立体书《哪吒闹海》（刘琦 绘）等。他还译有多本童书参考书，如《亲爱的天才》（伦纳德·马库斯 编著）、《写给未来的艺术家》（艾瑞·卡尔 编著）等；近20年间他还译有200多本英文图画书，包括“比得兔的世界”、米菲系列、《晚安月亮》、《野兽出没的地方》，等等。

Ajia is a Chinese author and translator of children’s books, a promoter of reading, an enthusiastic storyteller and a 2022 Carle Honors Bridge Honoree. As an independent researcher, he has written several books including A Little History of Picture Books and Passion for Reading – A Handbook on Reading Promotion. Picture books authored by Ajia include Li Na: Be an Even Better You illustrated by Yu Rong and Drawing a horse illustrated by Dai Dunbang. He has also translated several reference books like Dear Genius by Leonard S. Marcus and more than 200 picture books from English to Chinese, such as the Peter Rabbit Series, Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are.

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate. She is a three-time U.S. nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Book Award. Her most recent books are Your Heart, Light for All, Rima’s Rebellion, and Singing With Elephants.

Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His first children’s book, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Piers completed an unfinished novel by his late father Paul (author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) and adapted The Box of Delights for stage.

Lee Geum-yi is an author of children’s and young adult fictions. Since her debut in 1984, Geum-yi has published more than 50 titles that contributed to an explosive progress in South Korean Children’s Literature. Her Young Adult fictions have brought about the birth and the expansion of its genre in South Korea. Her work has also been adapted into a TV mini-series, a musical, and a webcomic. Her short stories and excerpts have appeared in various school textbooks, and many of her books have been selected for the One City One Book Campaign and the One Semester One Book Campaign.

Avery Fischer Udagawa’s translations of children’s literature from Japanese include the 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award-winning novel Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Miho Satake, and the historical novel J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965 by Shogo Oketani. Her short story translations have appeared in Kyoto Journal, Words Without Borders, Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories, The Best Asian Short Stories 2018, and A Tapestry of Colours 1: Stories from Asia. She serves as SCBWI and SCBWI Japan Translator Coordinator.