The keynote speaker is Kenneth Kidd who is professor of English at the University of Florida Gainesville, and is the author of Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale and Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children's Culture. He also coedited two volumes, Wild Things: Children’s Culture and Ecocriticism and Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Since 2004 he has served as associate editor of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Sponsored by the graduate programs in children's literature and children's book illustration.