Summer Literacy Institute

Lynsey Burkins and Franki Sibberson | Thursday Workshop Presenters

Lynsey Burkins has worked for children for the past eighteen years and currently serves third-grade students. She works towards creating anti-racist spaces where children feel free, have agency, and know they are loved. She believes books are primary vehicles to help children become freer. She also presents on topics such as using literature to help students make sense of their world and literature as a vehicle to nurture students’ spirit and minds.

She received her master’s degree in language, literacy, and culture from The Ohio State University. She is a member of National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) and the outgoing national chair of NCTE’s Build Your Stack, an initiative that works to build teachers’ expertise in knowing and using quality literature in the classroom.

You can find her at @lburkins on Twitter.

Franki Sibberson is a past-president of the NCTE, and is a literacy leader with thirty-three years of elementary classroom experience in Ohio. She is the co-author of several professional books including Beyond Leveled Books, Still Learning to Read, and Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop.

She currently serves as the director of the NUDL Institute for Professional Learning for SproutFive.

She also provides leadership and consulting to schools and nonprofits, supporting both local and national literacy initiatives.

A.S. King | Friday Author Keynote

A.S. King has been called “one of the best Y.A. writers
working today” by the New York Times Book Review. King is the author of highly-acclaimed novels including 2021's SW/TCH, 2020 Michael L. Printz Award winner and LA Times Book Prize finalist DIG, 2016's Still Life with Tornado, 2015’s surrealist I Crawl Through It, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, Reality Boy, the 2012 LA Times Book Prize winner Ask the Passengers, Everybody Sees the Ants, 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz among others.

She also writes middle grade fiction as Amy Sarig King, including Attack of the Black Rectangles.

In 2022, King received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.

Donna L. Washington | Thursday Banquet Author / Storyteller

Donna Washington is an internationally known master
storyteller, artist-educator, and author who has been performing for audiences of all ages for over thirty-five years. Her eleven storytelling CDs have garnered over thirty national awards.

She has authored numerous articles including contributions to the award-winning book by Sherry Norfolk and Lyn Ford, Social Studies In The Storytelling Classroom, and Janice Del Negro’s Storytelling Art and Technique. Donna is the author of Li’l Rabbit’s Kwanzaa, A Pride of African Tales, The Story of Kwanzaa, A Big Spooky House, Boo Stew, and Prak Fills The House.

She has served as president of the North Carolina Storytelling Guild and on the editorial board of the National Association of Black Storytellers. In 2020, she co-founded the non-profit organization Artists Standing Strong Together.