East Asia LitFest
This annual event is sponsored by the CEAS Title VI Department of Education National Resource Center grant for 2022-2025, the Kansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia, and the KU School for Education and Human Sciences.
In the past, this event has had several different formats. However, this event officially includes an in-service educator workshop, pre-service educator workshop, and a public talk for the community. Our goal with LitFest is to share a story with an East Asian focus for teachers to be able to use in the classroom.
CEAS does our best each year to purchase a copy of the featured book and create class materials for educators in attendance at these events. We hope to see you at our next LitFest!
2025 LitFest with Andrea Wang
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author and her children's book, Watercress has received several literary awards.
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of picture books and middle-grade novels. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a New England Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, among others. She is also the author of Summer of Squee, Luli and the Language of Tea, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando, and The Nian Monster. These books have received starred reviews, awards, and/or honors, and have appeared on multiple state library book lists.
Andrea grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Newton, Massachusetts. She attended Wellesley College, graduating with dual degrees in biology and Chinese studies. She went on to receive a Master of Science degree in environmental studies from Indiana University – Bloomington. As an environmental consultant, she evaluated and cleaned up hazardous waste sites. Subsequently, Andrea earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for Young People from Lesley University and returned to her childhood dream of becoming an author. She is thrilled to be able to utilize all her degrees to create fiction and nonfiction books for young people, mostly centered on themes of culture, identity, and connection.
2024 LitFest with Ellen Oh
Ellen Oh is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books and winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award Honor for Children’s Literature for her novel, Finding Junie Kim.
During her time at KU, Ellen gave presentations to three audiences: In-Service Educators at Cordley Elementary School, Pre-Service Educators at KU, and to the Lawrence community at the Carnegie Building. Her presentations emphasized the vitalness of having diverse perspectives in children's literature.
In showing how children need to be taught empathy, she retold first-hand experiences of herself and her family on how diverse perspectives and banned books changed their lives. She even went further in discussing how one banned book saved South Korea in fueling the democratic movement in the 1980s. This movement is known as the 5.18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising.
If you would like to learn more about Ellen Oh, We Need Diverse Books, or the themes from her presentation, please select the links on the side.