History of the Plum Creek Festival
Founded in 1994, the Plum Creek Children’s Literacy Festival seeks to encourage a love of reading, writing, and books by bringing nationally renowned authors and illustrators to Nebraska. The festival started as a one day, one author event, with about 200 children present. Since then, it has grown to three days and nine authors and illustrators. In 2012, nearly 10,000 children and adults were in attendance. It currently includes sessions for early childhood, elementary, middle-level and secondary students as well as adults.
The Plum Creek Literacy Festival won the Jane Pope Geske award given by The Nebraska Center for the Book for exceptional literary contributions in 2007. In 2010, it became a Read Aloud Nebraska Champion.
Past featured authors and illustrators
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1996 Janet Stevens 1997 William Anderson 1998 Ruth Heller, Shirley Climo 1999 Emily Arnold McCully, Ivy Ruckman, Chris Demarest, David Harrison 2000 Paul O. Zelinsky, Denise Fleming, Patricia Calvert, Caroline Arnold 2001 Will Hobbs, Cheryl Harness, Helen Lester, Teri Sloat 2002 EB Lewis, Jim Aylesworth, Mary Downing Hahn, Sneed Collard III, Sandy Asher 2003 Brod Bagert, Lisa Campbell Ernst, June Rae Wood, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Brad Sneed 2004 Steven Kellogg, Patricia McKissack, Ben Mikaelsen, Jerry Pallotta 2005 Janet Stevens, Susan Stevens Crummel, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Elisa Carbone, W. Nikola-Lisa and Stephen Swinburne 2006 Ted Kooser (U.S. Poet Laureate), Tedd Arnold, Joseph Bruchac, Patricia Reilly Giff, Nikki Grimes, and Ashley Wolff. Marc Brown at the Endowment Dinner. 2007 Andrew Clements, Ted & Betsy Lewin, Peg Kehret, Robin Brickman, and Richard Peck. Laura Numeroff at the Endowment Dinner. 2008 Cynthia DeFelice, Gail Gibbons, Mo Willems, Mike Graf, Joan Bauer, and Hans Wilhelm. Lois Lowry at the Endowment Dinner. 2009 John Archambault, David Biedrzycki, John Erickson, Carmen Deedy, Shelley Gill, Gordon Korman, and Preston McDaniels. Authors Readers Theater: Avi, Sarah Weeks, Richard Peck and Pam Muñoz Ryan at the Endowment Dinner. 2010 Ashley Bryan, Alyssa Capucilli, Dan Gutman, Ralph Masiello, Patricia Polacco, Pat Schories, and Sarah Weeks. Carmen Deedy & John McCutcheon at the Endowment Dinner. 2011 Eileen Christelow, Bill Harley, Grace Lin, Brian Pinkney, Barbara Robinson, Roland Smith and DyAnne DiSalvo. Jerry Pinkney at the Endowment Dinner. 2012 R.W. and Zoe Alley, Jarrett Kosoczka, Andrea Pinkney, Ted Scheu, Gary Schmidt, and Clare Vanderpool. David Wiesner at the Adult Conference. 2013 Anna Dewdney, Candace Fleming, Marla Frazee, Barbara McClintock, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Eric Rohmann, Judy Schachner, and Neal Shusterman. Kevin Henkes at the Adult Conference.
