Jen Ferguson
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Jen Ferguson (she/her/hers) teaches fiction writing at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Bio
From the American Library Association conference website:[1]
- "Jen Ferguson (she/her) is Métis with historical ties to the Red River and white, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and Creative Writing. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. Her debut YA novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Heartdrum/HarperCollins) won a 2022 Governor General's Literary Award, was a 2023 Morris Award finalist and is a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book. Her second YA, Those Pink Mountain Nights, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection with four starred reviews. Forthcoming in September, A Constellation of Minor Bears, is a powerful story about four teens hiking the Pacific Crest Trail who are grappling with resentment, grief, enduring friendship, and how to move forward with a life that’s not what they’d imagined. Jen teaches fiction writing at Coe College.
How to Run an LGBTQIA2S+ Book Club for Teens if You’re Not Queer or Trans
Jen Ferguson led a panel discussion for the American Library Association 2024 conference titled "How to Run an LGBTQIA2S+ Book Club for Teens if You’re Not Queer or Trans" on June 29, 2024.[2],[3]
- Say you know there’s a need for a queer book club for teens at your library, and you’re willing to run the program, but you’re not queer or trans—what are some best practices for being an incredible ally to your LGBTQIA2S+ teens? This panel will bring a group of LGBTQIA2S+ authors together to think through best practices, and all the tips and tricks we’ve got to make your queer book club the strongest it can be. We will talk book selection, developing a community agreements and think through the kinds of other supports a queer book club needs to be successful if the person running the programming isn't queer themselves, especially in the current, shall we say, landscape.
Learning Objectives:
- level up their allyship to queer and trans teens in their libraries and their lives.
- consider what goes into providing a service to a group with specific needs which the librarian does not share.
- leave ALA24 with instantly applicable ideas and techniques to bring home with them.
- consider the challenges of providing a service in the current landscape of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation.
Panelists
- Jen Ferguson (she/her/hers) Author Heartdrum/HarperCollins (Presenter)
- Racquel Marie Author Macmillan / Feiwel and Friends (she/her/hers)
- Shelly Page Author/Anthology Editor Macmillan/RHCB (she/her/hers)
- Edward Underhill Author HarperCollins / Macmillan (he/him/his)
- Justine Winans Author HarperCollins (they/them/theirs)