
The LeClaire Community Library presents an All Iowa Reads Virtual Author Event with Diane Wilson -- June 11.
Diane Wilson: Tuesday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.
Celia Pérez and Samira Ahmed: Wednesday, June 12, 2 p.m.
LeClaire Community Library, 323 Wisconsin Street, LeClaire IA
On June 11 and 12, a trio of gifted, award-winning authors will take place in a pair of virtual conversations hosted by the LeClaire Community Library, with fans of child and young-adult fiction invited to a Tuesday-evening audience with Diane Wilson of the All Iowa Reads selection The Seed Keeper, and a Wednesday-evening online chat with Celia Perez and Samira Ahmed of All Iowa Reads choices Tumble and Hollow Fires.
Participating in her June 11 virtual conversation, Diane Wilson is a writer and educator who has published four award-winning books as well as essays in numerous publications. Her first picture book, Where We Come From, co-written with John Coy, Sun Yung Shin, and Shannon Gibney, was released in October of 2022. Wilson’s 2021 novel The Seed Keeper received the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for Fiction, while her memoir Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award and was selected for the 2012 One Minneapolis One Read program. Her 2011 nonfiction book Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life was awarded the 2012 Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado. Wilson's middle-grade biography Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector, meanwhile, was an Honor selection for the 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award.
Wilson's eessays have appeared in many anthologies, including: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations (2021); We Are Meant to Rise (2021); and A Good Time for the Truth (2016). The author has received a 2013 Bush Foundation Fellowship, as well as awards from Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and a 50 Over 50 Award from Pollen/Midwest. In addition, Wilson is the former Executive Director for Dream of Wild Health, an Indigenous non-profit farm, and the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national coalition of tribes and organizations working to create sovereign food systems for Native people. She is a Mdewakanton descendant, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.
One of two authors participating in the LeClaire Community Library's virtual event on June 12, Celia C. Pérez is the daughter of a Mexican mother and a Cuban father. Her debut book for young readers, The First Rule of Punk, was a 2018 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book, a 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards honor book, and a winner of the 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award. It was also a Junior Library Guild selection that was included in several best-of-the-year lists including: the Amelia Bloomer List; NPR's Best Books of 2017; the Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books; the New York Public Library's Best Books for Kids; School Library Journal's Best of 2017; The Horn Book Magazine's Fanfare; and ALSC's Notable Children's Books.
Pérez's second book for young readers, Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers, is an Association of Library Services to Children Notable Children’s Book and was named to several best-of-the-year lists, including: Rise: A Feminist Book Project List (formerly the Amelia Bloomer List); the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2020; the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature Best Books of 2019; the Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2019; and the Washington Post‘s Best Children’s Books of 2019. With her third book for young readers, Tumble, currently in print, Pérez is originally from Miami and is a graduate of the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. She lives with her family in Chicago where, in addition to writing books about lovable weirdos and outsiders, she works as a community college librarian.
Joining Pérez in virtual conversation on June 12, Samira Ahmed is the bestselling author of Love, Hate & Other Filters; Internment; Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know; Hollow Fires; and the Amira & Hamza middle-grade duology, as well as a Ms. Marvel comic book mini-series. Her poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies including the New York Times, Take the Mic, Color Outside the Lines, Vampires Never Get Old, and A Universe of Wishes. Ahmed was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that she says smelled like fried onions, spices, and potpourri. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Ahmed has taught high-school English in both the suburbs of Chicago and New York City, worked in education non-profits, and spent time on the road for political campaigns. The author currently lives in the Midwest, and when she’s not reading or writing, she can be found on her lifelong quest for the perfect pastry.
The virtual conservation with Diane Wilson will take place on June 11 at 6:30 p.m., the online chat with Celia Pérez and Samira Ahmed takes place on June 12 at 2 p.m., and participation in both LeClaire Community Library events is free. For more information, call (563)289-6007 and visit LeClaireIowa.gov/153/Library.