Established in 1998, the lecture was named to honor Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished children’s book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books, and author of more than 65 picture books, including such classic works as Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (Harper, 1962) and William’s Doll (Harper, 1972). Ms. Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison on a writing scholarship from 1933-36 where she studied with Professor Helen C. White. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a library of the School of Education of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, administers the event which each year brings a distinguished children’s book author or illustrator to the campus to deliver a free public lecture.
The Charlotte Zolotow Lectures
2024
Meg Medina (Save the Date! October 17, 2024)
2023
Angeline Boulley (October 19, 2023)
Lecture Title: “Indigenous Representation in Literature for Children”
2022
Grace Lin and Alvina Ling (October 20, 2022, Memorial Union, UW-Madison)
Lecture Title: “Book Friends Forever: How Friendship Casts Out Fear”
2021
Christopher Myers (Thursday, September 30, 2021)
Lecture Title: “What Is Your Water: Establishing a Lingua Franca in Community Literatures”
2020
The 2020 lecture was postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic.
2019
Kate DiCamillo (Thursday, October 17, 2019)
Lecture Title: “What Stories Have Given Me”
2018
Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Friday, October 12, 2018)
2017
Jason Reynolds (November 2, 2017)
2016
Jacqueline Woodson (October 20, 2016)
2015
Yuyi Morales (October 20, 2015)
Lecture Title: “The Power of Story in the Landscape of Memory and Identity”
2014
Paul Fleischman (October 15, 2014)
Lecture Title: “Some Things Go Together: Making Books with Charlotte Zolotow
2013
Leonard Marcus (October 17, 2013)
Lecture Title: Why Picture Books Matter”
2012
Rita Williams-Garcia (November 7, 2012)
Lecture Title: “Fictography:The Truth about Real Live Fictitious Folk ”
2011
Gene Luen Yang (October 5, 2011)
Lecture Title: “Convergences”
2010
Susan Patron (September 29, 2010)
Lecture Title: “Merging the Universe”
2009
Gregory Maguire (October 7, 2009)
2008
Judy Blume (October 15, 2008)
2007
Patricia MacLachlan (October 18, 2007)
Lecture Title: “The Family I Call Mine”
2006
Lois Lowry (October 18, 2006)
Lecture Title: “Lovely Presents”
2005
Angela Johnson (October 5, 2005)
Lecture Title: “Cheerleader Tears and Traveling the Road Together”
2004
Linda Sue Park (October 6, 2004)
Lecture Title: “The World as Seen Through Purple Eyes”
2003
Naomi Shihab Nye (October 8, 2003)
Lecture Title: “Just One Gazelle Would Be Fine with Me: Reading and Writing in Our Current World”
2002
Kevin Henkes (October 2, 2002)
Lecture Title: “An Equivalent Happiness: Making It Out of Childhood”
2001
Robert Lipsyte (October 3, 2001)
Lecture Title: “Jock Culture: Writing and Fighting”
2000
Jean Craighead George (September 27, 2000)
Lecture Title: “Words for the Young Child”
1999
Katherine Paterson (October 7, 1999)
Lecture Title: “The Invisible Child”
1998
Karla Kuskin (October 1, 1998)
Lecture Title: “The Ins and Outs of Words”